


Cold Blood In Her Veins, But A Warm Love In My Embrace

by Rogue21



Category: RWBY
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fall Maiden - Freeform, Light BDSM, Light Bondage, Other, Pre-Episode: v03e10 Battle Of Beacon, Pyrrha is the Fall Maiden, Qrow is Ruby's father, Romance, The Maidens - Freeform, Vytal Festival, Winter Maiden
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-04-04 21:00:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 35,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14028639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogue21/pseuds/Rogue21
Summary: With the Vytal Festival approaching and Roman Torchwick and the Grimm becoming a huge pain to deal with, Ozpin is recruiting more Huntsmen to help with protecting Beacon, one of which was a recent student of Ozpin’s who has recently become the Winter Maiden after spending a year in the Solitas continent. Olwen Freya now has to battle Grimm, hide her Maiden Powers and deal with the nuisance that is Roman Torchwick, but Roman can’t seem to stay away from Beacon now that Olwen is around and Team RWBY is starting to get suspicious as the Grimm inch closer to Beacon.





	1. Getting Lost In His Song

Ozpin sighed as he looked at the news reports of the latest Grimm attack outside of Vale. The Vytal Festival was four weeks away and General Ironwood was preparing to bring his army along to Vale. He scanned over the new Huntsmen Security team he had recruited to patrol around Beacon and Vale and heard a knock on the door.

 

“Enter,” he called out.

 

“Professor Ozpin, my how you haven’t changed,” he heard a sweet sounding voice say. He looked up to see a rather tall and beaming blonde girl peeking through the door. “I was elated when I got your message about needing Huntsmen around Beacon, I just had to stop by your office to say hello.”

 

“Olwen Freya, how nice to see you, last I saw you, you were on a ship to Atlas a year ago not two days after graduating from here, how was the north?” Ozpin asked as he leaned back in his chair and Olwen shut the door and walked over to his desk.

 

“It was wonderful, I met up with Elsa just as you recommended and we travelled out to her town,” Olwen replied.

 

“And how is Elsa?” Ozpin asked her. Olwen looked down and pulled out from her pocket a small snowflake pin.

 

“She died, about six weeks ago, the sickness finally caught up with her,” Olwen replied.

  
“So that means…” Ozpin trailed off as she blinked and a blue magic seemed to surround her eyes.

 

“Yes, I’m now the Winter Maiden, Elsa wanted me to give you her pin as her last wish and to thank you for everything,” Olwen said as she blinked and the magic vanished and she passed him the pin. He held it in his palm and stared down at it.

 

“That’s very thoughtful of you Olwen, now what about the Relic?”

 

“Safe in its vault, General Ironwood set up several more defences to protect the vault while he’s here for the festival, he’s aware of the situation and made sure I had an armed escort to Vale, so onto business, what’s the situation in Vale currently?” Olwen asked.

 

“Students from the other academies have started arriving and we’ve been dealing with this,” Ozpin said as he brought up a video of Roman Torchwick stealing Dust from another Dust shop.

 

“Who’s that?”

 

“Roman Torchwick, criminal mastermind behind the Dust thefts, we’ve been trying to capture him but it’s proved useless, he managed to crash a train into the city and let loose a bunch of Grimm, we managed to clear out the Grimm and repair the damage but…he’s still causing trouble,” Ozpin informed her as he paused the video and zoomed in on Roman. Olwen thought for a moment as she studied the image.

 

“I could take a shot at him, shouldn’t be too hard to track him, just follow the sounds of maniacal laughter it seems,” she said. Ozpin smirked at her comment.

 

“Indeed, very well, why don’t you introduce yourself to some of the students and then tonight you can take a patrol to find Torchwick and see what he’s up to, I need to give James a call to discuss the Fall Maiden…you need to be careful Olwen, if the person who attacked Amber knows you’re the Winter Maiden,” Ozpin began.

  
“Don’t worry Ozpin, I’ll be careful, Elsa trained me well, she wouldn’t have picked me if I couldn’t protect the gift,” Olwen assured him. Ozpin bowed his head towards her.

  
“Of course Olwen, good day to you,” he said. Olwen bowed back and left Ozpin’s office to go and meet some of the students.

 

* * *

 

 

After roughly ten minutes of wandering she came to the mess hall where she saw a group of eight students sitting at one of the tables laughing. They seemed like a good group to introduce herself to, she thought as she approached them.

 

“I can’t wait for the tournament to start though, I’ve promised Sun that I’d support him if he gets to the one-one-ones,” said the girl with a black bow in her hair.

  
“You’re all participating in the tournament?” Olwen asked them. The girl with short black hair and silver eyes looked up at her and then gasped.

  
“Oh my gosh, it’s Olwen Freya!” she squealed. Olwen looked taken aback as the girl started bouncing in her seat. “Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, you are so cool I heard all about you from my Uncle Qrow, he said you’re a really talented Huntress and took down something called a Nuckelavee.” Olwen chuckled as the girl pushed out a chair for her.

  
“Nuckelavee’s are pretty dangerous Grimm, this one was heading towards the town I was staying in, near Atlas, I was the only Huntress around and so I had to fight it alone, almost killed me, see this scar,” Olwen said as she pulled up her sweater sleeve to reveal three large strikes up her arm. “Got me bad, but I took it down using my weapon and my semblance.”

 

“What is your semblance?” the blond boy asked her.

  
“I can manipulate friction, make things really hard to walk on, touch, grab, climb that kind of thing, I can show you if you want, I just need a volunteer,” Olwen said.

  
“I volunteer!” the silver-eyed girl said.

  
“Alright Silver Eyes, what’s your name?”

 

“Ruby Rose, this is Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren,” Ruby said.

 

“Alright, okay Ruby, take your empty tray and stand over there,” Olwen said. Ruby picked up her tray and stood at the end of the table. “Now take a run and start tray sliding.” Ruby ran and slammed the tray onto the ground as Olwen started glowing and Ruby’s tray glowed too as she slid across the floor and right out of the mess hall door where there was a crash.

 

“I’m okay!” she called out. Yang laughed as she watched her little sister slowly walk back into the mess hall rubbing her thigh.

 

“And a little piece of trivia for you guys, that was how I discovered my semblance, my friends and I decided to do some tray sliding, I sent my friend flying into the fountain by accident, I didn’t know the sign for ‘watch out’, I can also make people dance and do the running man,” Olwen said to them.

  
“That could be great, I can just see a Grimm sliding around on its feet because you made the ground slippery,” Yang said.

  
“Yeah, I became the great prankster with my semblance, now I have to run off and do a little job for Professor Ozpin, it was nice meeting you all and I hope to see you guys around Beacon,” Olwen said standing up. Ruby grinned widely and waved at her.

  
“It was nice meeting you Olwen,” she said.

  
“You too Silver Eyes,” Olwen replied and walked out of the mess hall. They were a nice bunch of kids and Ruby seemed to be just as Qrow had described her.

 

* * *

 

 

Olwen left Beacon just as more ships were coming in with students from other academies and headed further into Vale. Now to find this Roman Torchwick give him a beating and find out just why he’s stealing Dust and blowing up trains. She walked down through the town and decided to start at the docks first. She walked around, keeping out of sight of most people and found nothing.

  
“Well this was a bust, where would a guy like Torchwick be with mounds of Du-…oh right Warehouse District,” she said to herself. She debated whether or not her Maiden Powers would be needed for this fight, maybe if he proved too much. She decided to use them but only sparingly and headed on over to the Warehouse District which was empty of civilians. It seemed almost too quiet but she knew he was going to be around somewhere, she wanted to give up until she heard someone start shouting:

 

“Careful with those crates you brainless bobcat!” the voice shouted. “Our boss wants these to be delivered to the White Fang in one piece and if you drop the crate like that there’ll be Dust everywhere!” That had to be Torchwick, she activated her semblance and allowed herself to slide silently along the ground till she came to a wall to hide behind. There he was, Roman Torchwick, commanding around four White Fang members to put the crates into large ships ready for delivery.

 

“Torchwick,” she muttered to herself, she would have to get closer to try and use her semblance. She pulled out her weapon a quarterstaff that doubled as dual swords and started sliding closer and hid behind some of the crates. She deactivated her semblance and watched him carefully.

 

“Alright Torchwick, what have you been up to?” she muttered to herself. She watched as he started ordering the White Fang around.

  
“We need to keep up with the deliveries otherwise Taurus will just throw another temper tantrum, I swear he has no class that boy, just wants to spout rhetoric and look good doing it,” Roman said as he started walked over to the crates she was near. “Here I am doing the heavy work while he hides in a tent.” He walked over to the crates as Olwen held her breath making sure he didn’t spot her.

 

“And one more thing and…they’re gone.” She peeked over the crates to see the White Fang members were all gone suddenly, where she didn’t know but now he was alone.

 

“Looks like I’ll have to file the inventory myself,” Roman said, he took a step forward before sliding forward and falling over. “What the-.”

 

“Hey Torchwick, nice trip?” Olwen said standing up from behind the crates. Roman took a look at her and smiled a little.

 

“And who do I have the pleasure of meeting this fine evening?” he asked standing up and wiping down his jacket.

 

“A Huntress, now from what Ozpin told me, you’ve been a naughty boy Torchwick, causing problems for Vale, well we can’t have that now. Ozpin sent me to find you, maybe give you a beating, at least find out who you’re working for,” Olwen said turning her quarterstaff into dual swords.

 

“Well, well, guess Ozpin got tired of sending kids after me and sent a real Huntress this time, well then by all means, let’s fight,” he said readying his cane.

  
“It’s not going to be much of fight Torchwick,” Olwen said as she dashed towards him and caused a breath of ice to sweep past her and her eyes got that icy blue magic around them. Roman dodged as she sent a spray of icicles towards him and summoned a flurry. She ran at him and blocked his attack with her blades and brought them back into quarterstaff form and they started fighting. He was quick and talented with his cane but she was better than him. She would push back with her friction semblance but he would fire shots at her with his weapon and she would block it with ice. She finally got the upper hand when her quarterstaff knocked his cane out of his hands and he fell to the floor. She stood over him, quarterstaff pointed to his throat.

  
“I win Torchwick,” she said. Roman laughed at her and pushed the quarterstaff aside with his hand.

 

“Yes you did Huntress, I am completely at your mercy, but you couldn’t capture me, I’d easily escape and you’d be back at square one, tell you what, let me go now and we can fight again in a few days when the next shipment of Dust is ready to go out, deal?” he asked her with that same smile from earlier. Olwen gave him a curious glance, why would he want to fight again.

  
“Why would you say that?”

 

“Do this and I won’t tell anyone, especially my boss, that the Winter Maiden is in Vale,” he told her. She took a step back as he sat up. “Yes, I saw it instantly when you attacked me, the Winter Maiden, a children’s fable come to life, quite thrilling actually.”

 

“I feel like I’m losing either way here.”

 

Oh but you’re not Huntress, the only way you lose is if you try to take me in because then when my boss comes to find me and finds you, you’ll be fighting someone much stronger than me,” he told her standing up. Olwen seemed stuck, he was a wanted criminal that Ozpin wanted her to find, but he knew she was a Maiden now and had a superior who was interested in the Maidens.

  
“How do I know you won’t sell me out?” she asked him. He stood there thinking for a few seconds before snapping his fingers and reached into his pocket.

 

“Because you’ll be holding onto this,” he said pulling out a data chip in the shape of tiny key.

  
“What is this?” she asked as he passed the chip over to her.

 

“This chip contains records of every place I’ve robbed and places I plan to hit next, you hold all the information needed send me to prison for the next twenty years, hold on to that and don’t give it to Ozpin or the police or anyone and your secret is safe with me,” Roman said to her as he turned to go and pick up his cane.

 

“This contains every Dust store you’ve hit and plan to hit next?”

 

“Not just Dust stores sweetheart, when our plans takes us to Atlas, I plan to take out the biggest supply of Dust in Atlas, the Schnee Dust Company Vault,” he told her. “Now I really must run along now, may we meet again, where are you staying?”

  
“B- Beacon,” Olwen said unsure of why she willingly shared at information.

 

“Well maybe I’ll stop by Beacon and we can have a duel then,” Roman said taking a bow before sauntering away back into the warehouse leaving her all alone.

 

“The Schnee Vault,” she muttered to herself before pocketing the data chip and leaving.


	2. Take The Mask Off

Olwen returned to Beacon and informed Ozpin of her duel with Torchwick, omitting the information about him knowing her secret and her holding onto a lot of Roman’s data chip.

 

“And he got away, but is planning to fight you again…this could be interesting, use this as a way to keep tabs on him, keep him close by, but make sure he doesn’t come near Beacon, we don’t need his superior knowing of any of Beacon’s secrets,” Ozpin told her.

  
“I can do that Oz, by the way, how is Amber?” Olwen asked.

 

“She’s stable, but I’m afraid she doesn’t have long left, we’re making plans for the next Fall Maiden just to be safe,” Ozpin replied. Olwen nodded.

  
“Good, good night Ozpin,” she said and bowed her head before leaving his office.

 

* * *

 

 

The next week that passed was a strange one for Olwen. Three days after her first fight with Roman, they fought again in the middle of the night in the city square of Vale, when Olwen won again, Roman suggested they exchange scrolls so they could, in his words, keep in contact. The rest of the week, Roman didn’t contact her, which made her curious.

 

One day as she was sitting in Professor Oobleck’s class she then got a message. She opened up her scroll to see a message from Roman: Meet me on the roof of Tukson’s Book Trade and bring a picnic basket of food.

 

“Really he wants us to eat before the next fight,” she mumbled to herself. Roman was a man who had a chaotic nature to him that Olwen couldn’t decipher, at least with Grimm the intention was clear. She stared down at the message, tuning out of Oobleck’s lecture.

 

“Miss Freya, Miss Freya!”

 

“Yeah!” Olwen snapped up to see Oobleck pointing his empty coffee cup at her.

  
“As I was saying Miss Freya, our lecture is nearly over and I thought you could finish with some advice on battling Grimm without the use of long range weapons,” he said to her. She closed the scroll and stood up.

 

“If you don’t have long range weaponry, Grimm like the Griffons and the Nevermore are difficult to fight unless they come to you, it’s best to say away from them, regular Grimm that stick to the ground can be taken down in close combat provide you can shield yourself, thank you,” Olwen told the class.

  
“Short and snappy, good, alright class, we’ll resume this tomorrow, good day,” Oobleck said. The class started to pack up as Olwen opened up her scroll again to look at the message.

 

“Hi Olwen,” Pyrrha said to her.

  
“Oh hi Pyrrha, did you need something?”

 

“I was hoping we could take a walk and chat, I wanted to discuss something with you,” Pyrrha said to her.

 

“Of course,” Olwen agreed. They left the classroom and went to the balcony of the grand hall, most of the students were wandering around the campus and Olwen could see Jaune, Nora, Ruby and Ren on the green having a conversation. “I missed this part of the day, so what did you want to talk about Pyrrha?”

 

“Well I wanted to ask you about your win in the Vytal Festival two years ago, did you feel enormous pressure to win?” Pyrrha asked her. Olwen shook her head.

  
“No, truth be told no one thought I was going to win, my team ORNG was never considered that tough or great, but we beat the team match then the two on twos and then I was chosen to be the one-on-one and I made it to the end, no one expected us but I never felt the pressure to win, why, do you feel like you’re being pressured?”

 

“A little, everyone knows me as Pyrrha, this great warrior who’s destined to become the greatest Huntress yet and who is going to win the Vytal Festival, I don’t know it just feels like if I lose, I’ll let everyone and my team down,” Pyrrha told her.

 

“That’s a lot of pressure for one person, I’m surprised you’re holding it together well, my advice, trust in your team to support you no matter what, you’re a team first,” Olwen told her. That seemed to cheer Pyrrha up a bit.

 

“Thank you Olwen, what happened to your team?” she asked her.

 

“Goose went back to Menagerie, wanted to protect his people from the Grimm and work against the White Fang, Neo, I lost contact with after I left for Atlas, I hope she’s okay, she was my best friend and I hated saying goodbye to her and Romaine went to Haven to teach the students there, the one thing that never changed though was, even though our team split up, I was still always going to be the leader of ORNG and maybe one day we’d team up again for something great,” Olwen told her. “You feeling better now?”

 

“I am thanks,” Pyrrha said, Olwen’s scroll beeped and she opened it to see a message from Roman, it was just a picture of him smiling.

 

“Now he’s just messing with me,” she said.

  
“Who is it?” Pyrrha asked, Olwen looked at Pyrrha, she looked trustworthy and perhaps she could help.

 

“If I tell you, can you promise not to tell anyone?” she asked Pyrrha who nodded.

  
“I swear on my life Olwen,” she said. Olwen showed her the picture and Pyrrha stared in disbelief.

  
“Roman Torchwick, what’s he doing sending you messages?” she asked.

  
“Ozpin wanted me to find him and find out what he was up to, we had a fight and…Roman found out a secret of mine, so to ensure he wouldn’t sell me out, he gave me some pretty heavy intel on himself, and then we had another fight about four days ago and he suggested we exchange scrolls, another way I could keep tabs on him as Ozpin had suggested and then he sent me this earlier in the class,” Olwen said showing her the message.

 

“A picnic basket?”

 

“I know, what kind of criminal invites you to a fight but asks for food as well?” Olwen asked.

 

“I think one who asks you out on a date,” Pyrrha suggested. They both glanced at each other before laughing.

  
“That’s ridiculous, although I don’t have a picnic basket and what kind of food would I bring?”

  
“I can help, give me two hours and I’ll put together something special, and maybe I’ll hide something in there in case a fight ensues,” Pyrrha said to her.

  
“Thanks Pyrrha, you’re a good friend, I’m going to give him a call and see what he’s planning.” Pyrrha left and Olwen opened up the scroll and called up Roman, maybe he was being cheeky and was planning an ambush with a parasol.

 

“Well, well Winter Maiden, what a pleasure,” Roman answered.

  
“What are you planning, what kind of fight starts with dinner?” Olwen asked him.

  
“Oh didn’t I mention, we’re not fighting tonight, no I just thought we could meet up for a chat, I have some valuable information you might be interested in,” he told her.

 

“And the food is for?”

  
“Well the best information is always shared over dinner, see you tonight,” Roman said and hung up. Olwen stood there dumbfounded, Roman Torchwick had information for her. She wondered if Roman was just messing with her or was serious and for a man who enjoyed the direction of the cash flow his willingness to give her valuable information was a curious one. Would she be required to pay him? Ozpin did give the new Huntsmen security a pretty nice pay check and she made a nice amount when in Atlas. She could easily do a transfer if the situation came down to it, or simply run.

 

* * *

 

Around eleven o’clock Olwen prepared to leave Beacon and go down to meet Roman on the roof of the bookstore. She knocked on the door of Team JNPR and Pyrrha answered.

  
“Evening Olwen, here’s your picnic basket, I prepared it with something classy but in case things get hairy there’s a couple knives in there for precaution,” she said opening the door. She saw Ren, Nora and Jaune all sitting around the basket hoping to get a look at the goods inside.

  
“Are you really taking this to Torchwick, it could be a trap,” Ren suggested. Olwen looked at Pyrrha who grinned sheepishly.

  
“Nora got it out of me, she wouldn’t stop asking questions, but they’ve all promised to not say a word, haven’t you,” Pyrrha said to them all.

  
“Oh sure, I just want to know why you’re going on a date with a wanted criminal,” Nora said with a chuckle, finding the situation funny.

  
“Nora, there is a saying that goes keep your friends close and your enemies closer, besides this is more of a favour to Ozpin, I keep Roman Torchwick distracted and he can focus on getting the festival prepared with little hassle,” Olwen explained.

  
“Right,” Nora said with a wink. Olwen rolled her eyes and chuckled and picked up the basket.

 

“Well hopefully it won’t result in combat, he said he had valuable information,” she told them.

  
“What sort of information could that guy have?” Jaune asked her.

  
“He could know anything at this point, if it’s got to do with the festival, Ozpin will be the first to know,” Olwen replied and left. “Oh and best not let Team RWBY know, from what Ozpin has told me, they’re not the biggest fans of Torchwick and may not appreciate my doing this for Ozpin.”

 

* * *

 

Olwen went down into Vale and found the bookstore, Roman wasn’t there, she jumped onto the roof with the help of her Maiden power and sat on the edge, legs dangling off and kicking them.

  
“Well even if he’s late it’s still a pretty nice view,” Olwen said. She looked into the basket Pyrrha had made to see buns, cheese, three kinds of sliced ham, some kind of pâté, napkins, and two daggers. The way Pyrrha had put the basket together seemed that she had done this before for someone.

  
“Ah Winter Maiden you made it, and is that a picnic basket I see, I knew you’d come through, I made sure to bring us something bubbly,” she heard Roman say behind her, she turned to see him holding a champagne bottle and two champagne glasses.

  
“What are we celebrating, finally robbed the Schnee family of their jewels?” she asked him with sarcasm as he walked over.

  
“No but that’s the dream, I just know they have a crown hidden somewhere, rich family like that. No we are actually celebrating the fact that I have shipped off the last crate of Dust to the White Fang and now I can tell you why,” Roman said sitting beside her and handing her a glass.

  
“You do know whatever it is, I’d be telling Ozpin minus the fact that I know you’re planning to rob Jacques Schnee blind.”

 

“Loyal girl like you, I wouldn’t have doubted it, but now that I’ve collected and shipped out all the Dust in Vale, I’m out of a job temporarily, but now I know why.”

 

“And why is that?”

  
“Cinder is planning to attack Beacon, and use the White Fang as a front,” Roman told her. Olwen gasped just as Roman popped the bottle of champagne.

  
“I’d be more shocked if I knew who this Cinder was,” she said.

  
“Cinder is my boss, but she responds to a higher up, she’s allied with the White Fang to orchestrate an attack on Beacon, not sure why she never tells me anything but I’d wager it’s to disrupt the Vytal Festival,” Roman explained as he poured champagne into her glass.

  
“That can’t be it, this Cinder needs to have a motive, why would you ally and equip the White Fang without cause, if she’s using the White Fang for a front there’s got to be a catch,” Olwen said.

  
“I tried prying but she kicked me to the curb, now I’m just a guy in a great suit with thousands of Lien in the bank…actually that’s not half bad,” Roman said.

  
“So…you’re not affiliated with Cinder anymore if she’s stopped paying you then.”

 

“Very astute Winter Maiden, yes I go where the money goes, if Cinder’s not paying me then I’m not allied to her even if she is unstoppable, you see where my priorities are.”

  
“I do…you were a poor kid, you’d scrape and save every penny to buy yourself nice things when your parents couldn’t afford it, it’s a pretty easy thing to deduce and I should know, I wasn’t exactly rolling in money like the Schnee family are,” Olwen said as she took a roll, a slice of cheese and a fancy looking ham. “Oh I begged mother to buy me that pretty white dress I saw but the price tag made her weep.”

 

“How very dramatic Winter Maiden, now what is in that basket, my you certainly made it nice, what is this, three kinds of ham?” Roman said looking into the basket.

  
“Well I had help from Pyrrha, she thinks it was weird you wanted us to eat together and Nora thinks it’s a date,” Olwen said.

  
“You told people, did you tell Red too, is she going to sneak up behind me and whack me with a bat?” Roman said slightly agitated.

  
“No I didn’t tell Ruby, I made them swear not to tell her team, I know they like to cause you trouble and they would cause trouble for me, I’m essentially spying on you for Ozpin at this point.”

 

“And by doing that it keeps me off his back so he can plan the festival, I’m not stupid,” Roman said finishing his glass of champagne.

 

“Neither am I and if Ozpin wants me to essentially watch you so he can deal with Beacon stuff I can do that, and now that I know the White Fang are planning an assault, he’ll be prepared with the Huntsmen security,” Olwen said finishing her glass and throwing it. The glass sailed through the air as she then sent an icicle towards it and shattered it, shards falling. “I deal with chaos every day in the form of Grimm, what’s one guy in a suit.”

 

“Chaotic Winter Maiden, simply chaotic, this champagne is going straight to my head,” Roman said as he glanced at the bottle, how much alcohol was in that?

 

“Lightweight, Qrow Branwen could drink you under the table and still beat you in a thumb war,” Olwen told him mockingly.

 

“Is that so?”

 

* * *

 

 

The night continued with them arguing, debating, and drinking, when the champagne was empty and Roman revealed he had hidden another bottle as well, that one was finished just as quickly. By four AM, they were very drunk and Olwen needed to get back to Beacon.

  
“I have to go Roman, Ozpin needs me, he needs to know that the White Fang are coming,” Olwen said as she tried to stagger down the street with Roman clutching onto her.

  
“No stay, we could rob Old Man Shopkeep, he’s practically my friend at this point I’ve robbed him so many times,” Roman pleaded.

  
“No I can’t I have to go, you need to go, you need to find a new job.”

 

“I’ll get a job at Beacon, yeah I can…I can teach the kids how to steal,” Roman suggested as they staggered through the street back to Beacon.

 

It took another hour of them walking, stopping and walking some more before they got back to Beacon. Olwen knew he had to go but she didn’t know what to do with the man, he was drunk and close to passing out.

  
“I can’t bring you into Beacon, Ozpin would be mad and Ruby would be mad, you need to go,” she said as she pushed him away from the door.

  
“But I want to come in with you.”

 

“You can’t, why don’t you stay with Old Man Shopkeep, he’s your friend.”

 

“I guess…fine, I’ll go find Shopkeep, I’ll give you a call and we can…we can maybe fight or rob a liquor store or…or fight Grimm, I never fought Grimm before,” Roman suggested, his eyes were moving all over the place and she wondered if he could even see straight.

 

“Go and I’ll call you, now I need to find Ozpin, go!” Olwen said.

  
“I’m going, I had fun tonight Olw- Ol-, Ollie,” Roman said.

  
“Olwen!”

 

“Olwen, right, good night.” She watched Roman stagger away, somehow still sauntering as he did and leave through the gates of Beacon.


	3. Silver

Olwen opened her eyes, she was lying on the floor of Ozpin’s office with Pyrrha, Oobleck, and Ozpin looking over her with concern.

 

“Oz?” she asked in a groggy voice, her head was pounding and she was missing her coat. “What happened?”

 

“What happened is you came running into my office, drunk and rambling something about the White Fang, also something about Torchwick teaching here and then you passed out,” Ozpin explained to her as Pyrrha helped her up.

 

“For how long?” Olwen asked.

  
“About six hours, it’s eleven and I had to pull Oobleck and Pyrrha out of their class to deal with you,” Ozpin told her.

  
“Oh no, I’m sorry, Roman brought champagne and we were discussing how he was out of a job now that the White Fang are fully equipped with Dust and planning to attack Beacon,” Olwen said.

  
“Yes, that was part of the drunken ramble, the White Fang are coming to attack Beacon, are you absolutely sure about that?” Ozpin asked.

  
“I am, his boss Cinder has allied with the White Fang and they plan to launch an attack on Beacon at some point in the festival,” she told them.

 

“Right then, I need to get to work right away, Pyrrha, Oobleck, why don’t you two take Miss Freya here to get some coffee, she looks like she could use it,” Ozpin said.

  
“Right away, come on Miss Freya, a bag of beans and you’ll forget about that pounding headache,” Oobleck said as Pyrrha helped Olwen walk.

  
“Thank Professor Oobleck, what-, what is this?” Olwen pulled up her sleeve to see something written on her arm. “Red Light Café Nine PM.”

  
“I think you’re going out again tonight,” Pyrrha said as she looked at the writing.

  
“Oh Gods,” Olwen mumbled as she, Pyrrha and Oobleck left Ozpin’s office.

 

* * *

 

 

A couple of hours later and four strong cups of coffee and Olwen was feeling a lot better, Nora and Jaune were immediately interested in knowing all the details of the night before whilst Ren sat meditating in their dorm room.

  
“But seriously, two bottles of the stuff, what’s it like?” Nora asked.

  
“It tastes great, but it goes to your head,” Olwen replied.

  
“So he didn’t try to attack you or anything?” Jaune asked.

  
“Nope, we just ate and drank and…that was it really, he did follow me all the way back to Beacon but I sent him away, hopefully he made it to Shopkeep and passed out there.”  


“Why don’t you call him then?” Nora asked with a big grin.

  
“And why would I do that?”

  
“Because I want to see you start blushing when he answers,” she said.

 

“To be seventeen again,” Olwen muttered as she called up Roman on her scroll.

  
“What!” Roman answered in a groggy and very annoyed voice.

  
“Good afternoon to you too, where are you?” Olwen asked.

  
“Old Man Shopkeep’s couch.” Olwen took the scroll from her ear and placed it on speaker.

  
“Well at least you crashed somewhere comfortable, I however passed out on the floor of Ozpin’s office, also you wrote something on my arm and I can’t wash it off.”

 

“Did you kiss her at the end of the night” Nora asked in a high pitched tone.

  
“Who is that?”

  
“Hi Roman, I’m Nora Valkyrie, I’m one of Olwen’s besties,” Nora replied to Roman.

 

“No I did not!”

 

“You should have she’s blushing like cherry red tomato,” Nora added.

  
“And with that I’m out, I will see you tonight at the Red Light Café at nine as per what is written on my arm,” Olwen added and hung up the scroll. She looked at Nora who could only grin as a way to convey innocence. “You guys are coming tonight, I want you guys as backup, I do not remember why we are meeting so I want some backup in case an ambush happens,” she told them.

 

“Can do Olwen, should we tell Ruby then that we have to cancel tonight plans Jaune?” Pyrrha asked him.

  
“I’ll go tell her, I’ll say it’s got something to do with a patrol we’ve been selected for,” Jaune said standing up. “I’ll try and avoid the whole, double agent for Torchwick.” Jaune left the dorm room and Olwen stared at the scar on her arm.

 

“He wanted to fight a Grimm, apparently Roman has never fought a Grimm, he’s not a Huntsman, he fights like one, but he isn’t one,” she said.

  
“Why is that interesting?” Nora asked.

  
“It just is, first time I fought a Grimm I was a lot younger than you guys, I think I was twelve, we had a real bad Grimm problem back where I’m from, Huntsman worked around the clock, hard to believe I fought my first Grimm eight years ago,” Olwen replied.

 

“Was it scary?” Ren asked.

  
“A little, but I remember my dad handing me his sword and saying, if you can help me kill this Beowulf then I’m sending you to Beacon.” The door suddenly burst open as a little Corgi ran through followed by Ruby.

  
“Zwei no!” she cried as the little dog ran in and started barking happily. “Oh hi Olwen I didn’t know you’d be in here.”

  
“Oh you know, taking some time, Ozpin’s working on festival stuff and I’m just hanging out with Nora and Pyrrha,” she replied.

  
“She was telling us about her date last night,” Nora said.

  
“It wasn’t a date, it was just two people…eating and drinking, that son of a bitch, he asked me on a date,” Olwen said as the reality finally hit her.

  
“Who did you go on a date with?” Ruby asked.

  
“No one special, just a guy I met,” she said hoping to avoid the whole Roman Torchwick of the matter. “Also Jaune is looking for you by the way.”

 

“I know, he told me Team JNPR has a patrol tonight, well I’m gonna go, see you guys later, bad Zwei,” Ruby said as she picked up Zwei and took him out of the dorm.

 

* * *

 

 

Olwen and Team JNPR left around eight o’clock to head into Vale and go to the Red Light Café, Roman wasn’t around yet and the café was pretty quiet. JNPR all went and sat at a table further away from Olwen as she sat nearer to the front of the café and ordered another coffee. She looked at her scroll which had another report of a White Fang attack pop up on the news feed.

  
“Winter Maiden, nice to see you,” she heard Roman say as he approached her. He looked slightly worse for wear, hair looked messy, hat was tilted sideways and that immaculate eyeliner was now just a big smudge.

  
“Not so loud on the Maiden thing, I have some backup watching us,” she said pointing to JNPR. Roman glanced to see them all peek from behind menus, Nora waving to him. He waved back slightly unsure before turning back to Olwen.

  
“You brought them along?” he asked her.

  
“You wanted us to meet here and I didn’t know why, I needed backup just in case,” she said.

 

“Cookies!” Nora suddenly shouted before bounding over to a waiter.

 

“I guess that one is Nora then, she has that same sickly sweetness that Red possesses, makes me feel dead inside,” Roman commented.

  
“Poor little Torchwick, who killed your inner child?” Olwen said.

 

“None of your business.”

 

“So how did you convince Old Man Shopkeep to let you stay on his couch?” Olwen asked curious to know.

  
“Apparently I came to his shop and started sobbing about being a poor child with no home and that was enough to let me pass out on his couch, I can be very persuasive,” he told her.

  
“So it seems, on the bright side Ozpin believed me about the White Fang attack even if it sounded like the drunken ramblings of a paranoid Huntsman.”

  
“Well it is true, I don’t know when during the festival but Adam Taurus is going to be leading it, you might want to be on alert for a Faunus that dresses over the top and wears a mask.”

  
“You really want to criticise his sense of dress when you’re the one in a suit?” Olwen suggested. The rest of the evening was filled with more chatter, with Nora sidling over to say hello to Roman, compliment his hat and try to muscle in on the conversation before Ren had to drag her away. By eleven the café was closing and Team JNPR were heading back to Beacon.

  
“Are you sure you’re not going to come with us?” Pyrrha asked her worriedly.

  
“I’m sure, I’ll be back later, it’s sweet of you guys to worry but I’ll be fine, if anything happens, you’re the first ones I’ll call,” Olwen told them.

  
“Just be careful, he talks the talk but I don’t trust him,” Jaune said.

  
“And you’re smart not to, now go, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said. They left and she returned to Roman who was leaning on his cane deep in thought. “What are you thinking Roman?”

 

“I’m thinking we should go dancing,” he suggested.

 

“Dancing, dancing where, every club is closed tonight, Yang checked,” Olwen said.

  
“I know a better place,” Roman said. “Come on, if it make it there, we’ll make it in time for the second act.” Olwen didn’t want to question it, although who knows where Roman was going to take her.

 

* * *

 

 

She followed Roman down to a rather nicer part of Vale that housed the museum of natural history and the Vale Theatre, he opened up a back door where a guard had been waiting and guided them through the back of the theatre. The guard finally led them to a top box that had a great view of the stage but was hidden from the audience below.

  
“What is this?” Olwen asked as Roman slipped the guard a Lien.

  
“This Winter Maiden is a production of The Girl in the Tower, I figured seeing as you’re a living fairy tale you’d appreciate seeing a play based on one,” he said to her.

  
“You planned this, you, Roman Torchwick, who robs Dust stores and sleeps on Old Man Shopkeep’s couch,”

  
“Why not, it’s much better than fighting, I’m not just a guy in a great suit, I’ve got culture,” Roman said adjusting the collar on his coat. Olwen chuckled at the notion and leaned on edge of the top box balcony.

  
“Oh it’s a great view though, I loved this story as the child, the Maiden that lived in the tower all her life, guarded by Grimm and then the Huntsman arrives he kills the Grimm but then the Dragon arrives and challenges the Huntsman but it’s okay…because he’s also a silver-eyed warrior,” Olwen said.

  
“Silver eyes, how magical,” Roman said with a chuckle. Olwen nudged him at that comment.

  
“It is, he fights the Dragon and manages to kill it by using his powers and rescues the Maiden, it’s cute,” she said.

  
“I’m sure it is Snowflake,” he replied sounding disinterested.

  
“It is, you’ve just never heard a good love story in your life,” she said. Music started playing as the Maiden in the tower started to sing a ballad. Olwen leaned on her hand enchanted by the music and felt a nudge.

  
“Care to dance?” Roman asked her, his handout to her. She laughed and took it as he pulled her close.

 

“So classy, but so bad, if only you were the Huntsman in the story,” Olwen said.

  
“Who says I’m not?” Roman asked her.

  
“I do, you’re not a trained Huntsman and you don’t have silver eyes,” she pointed out. Roman smirked and pushed the hair that always covered his right eye aside.

 

“Don’t I Snowflake?” Olwen gasped, his right eye was pure silver, but his left eye was green.

  
“No, that can’t be possible,” she said.

  
“I’m afraid it is, Roman Torchwick, born with one silver eye, why do you think I grew my hair out like this,” he told her. She leaned in closer to observe his silver eye, it was extraordinary.

 

“Amazing,” she said, her eyes flicked between his eyes, to his lips and back to his eyes. “Oh no,” she muttered.

  
“What?” he asked her.

  
“You know exactly what,” she replied before kissing him.


	4. Grimm Dawn

Olwen felt lost for a moment before she remembered where she was and pulled herself away from Roman. She had kissed him. She looked at him as he stood there a little dumbfounded.

 

“Oh what am I doing, this isn’t right, I’m a respected Huntress, I’m the Winter Maiden, I can’t kiss you you’re a wanted criminal,” she said trying to rationalise everything.

  
“You only just realised that, but it was nice,” Roman said with a slight grin.

 

“Yes, it was, surprisingly good, but…it’s you, you and your good looks and silver eye suckered me in,” she said to him.

  
“You and your combat fighting skills suckered me in, watching you overpower me like that at the warehouse, it was quite sexy,” he told her. Olwen blushed at his compliment and she laughed.

  
“Somehow that made me feel better, oh this going to cause all sorts of problems,” she said.  
  
“So let’s keep it a secret,” Roman said pulling her close to him again. “Think about it, the criminal kingpin and the powerful Winter Maiden, we meet under cover of darkness, engage in some…rather salacious acts and then by dawn, we go our separate ways and you go back to Beacon, no one has to know.” That offer sounded irresistible to her, but also similar to one of Blake’s romance novels. She was about to respond when the actor playing the Silver Eyed Warrior cried out:

 

“Hark it’s a dastardly Beowulf…and its pals?” Olwen turned to see that five Beowulf’s were now on stage. The audience were enthralled but the actors were looking scared.

  
“Oh no,” she said as her Maiden powers activated.

  
“What is it?” Roman asked her, seeing the blue surround her eyes.

  
“Beowulf’s and those aren’t people in costume, those are real,” she said pointing down.

  
“How did Grimm get into the theatre, I thought the wall got fixed after I blew up the train,” Roman said.

  
“There’s another opening somewhere, come on, we need to get down there.” Olwen grabbed Roman’s hand and her powers forced them into the air, she dived down onto the stage, landing them gracefully in the middle of the fray.

  
“Is this part of the show?” an audience member asked excitedly.

  
“Isn’t that the criminal Roman Torchwick?” another asked confused.

  
“Roman get those actors away from the Grimm, everyone get out now this is not part of the show!” Olwen shouted. The actress playing the main heroine screamed as a Beowulf lunged at her. Olwen summoned a large shield of ice and threw it up in front of the actress. “Go!” the actress nodded and hurriedly moved out of the way as Roman pushed the lead actor into the crowd that were now running towards the exits.

 

“Get going or you’ll be killed now,” he told the actress and pushed her off the stage to into the lead actor’s arms. He turned just as a Beowulf leapt at him and he shot it with the end of his cane. Olwen got out her scroll and attached it to her quarterstaff and dialled Pyrrha on speaker.

 

“Hello, Olwen?” Pyrrha answered.

  
“We’ve got Grimm in the Vale Theatre, you need to get Ozpin and get down here now, Roman and I are trying to fend the Beowulf off so everyone can get out,” Olwen said.

  
“We’ll be there immediately,” Pyrrha said and hung up quickly.

 

“Good news Torchwick we’ve got backup coming,” she called out to Roman who has his cane between the teeth of the Beowulf and was drawing the other four in.

 

“Oh great, now help me get these filthy beasts off me,” he shouted as he pushed the Beowulf back with his strength. Olwen activated her Maiden powers as she ran and leapt into the air bringing her Quarterstaff down onto a Beowulf, it roared out and tried to swipe at her as she dodged its attacks and threw an ice spear at it. The blast of ice knocked it backwards and she turned to see another Beowulf about to land its paws on her, she put her arm to block the attack as suddenly it was thrown backwards by Roman slamming his entire body into the Beowulf. Olwen then summoned her powers and encased the two downed Beowulf in blocks of ice and turned to the other three.

  
“You ever used that silver eye?” she asked Roman as the three Beowulf’s grouped together and slowly prowled towards them.

  
“Never, I’m not even sure it has any power,” he said. She summoned her Aura and grabbed Roman’s arm.

  
“Just focus on creating a blinding light of pure silver,” she told him. Roman glared down the Beowulf’s and cried out, his silver eye burst with light as it created a blast of silver energy that pushed the three Beowulfs off the stage, blowing the chairs and props away as well. Olwen encased the three Beowulfs in ice and looked at Roman who now looked surprisingly tired.

  
“Are you okay?”

  
“I’ll be fine,” he said.

 

“Come on, Ozpin and the others should be here soon, those Grimm won’t be the only ones and we need to find out where they’re coming from,” she said as she jumped off the stage. “You’re a surprisingly strong fighter.”

 

“Thank you, it’s nice to be appreciated for once,” Roman said as he jumped down as well.

 

* * *

 

Outside of the theatre Ozpin and Team JNPR were waiting as Olwen and Roman exited the building.

 

“We got here as fast as we could and- Roman, what is he doing here?” Ozpin asked Olwen.

  
“We thought we’d take in a show and found a bunch of Grimm waiting in the wings,” Roman said with a heavily sarcastic tone, even if it was true.

 

“Did you kill the Grimm?” Ozpin sked.

  
“No, they’re all encased in ice, I’ll need you to help me dispose of them, but we think there’s an opening somewhere in the theatre, it would explain how they got in,” Olwen said. Ozpin nodded and gestured for them to follow him.

  
“Alright, let’s see what we’re dealing with,” he said.

  
“Thank you Pyrrha,” Olwen said to her. “We only halted the Beowulfs, but they might break out the ice.”

 

“Why are they in ice?” Jaune asked.

  
“You’ll see why in a moment.”

 

Inside the theatre Ozpin observed the frozen Beowulfs that were glaring through the ice and the mess of props and chairs that had blown from their bolts.

  
“I assume the mess was also you Olwen,” he said.

  
“Actually that was me, who knew I had such power,” Roman said almost proud of what he did. Ozpin gave Roman a curious glance.

  
“You did this, how?” he asked him. Roman smiled and pushed the hair out of his eye.

 

“Ever heard of a warrior having only one silver eye?” he asked Ozpin. Ozpin shook his head.

  
“Most curious, you have one silver eye, and yet you were able to use the power within to cause this amount of destruction, imagine the power if they were both silver,” Ozpin observed. He looked at the destruction and the frozen Grimm and snapped his fingers. “Nora if you wouldn’t mind,” he said. Nora grinned and held up her hammer.

  
“With pleasure Professor Ozpin,” she said with a smile and leapt into the air and proceeded to smash the frozen Grimm into pieces.

  
“How did they get encased in ice?” Ren asked Ozpin.

  
“I did that, and I didn’t need Dust either,” Olwen told them as they all regrouped on the stage.

  
“How can you not need Dust?” Pyrrha asked her. Olwen blinked and activated her powers.

  
“I’m the Winter Maiden, so far only Ozpin, General Ironwood and unfortunately Roman know, no one else does and it’s important that no one else knows, the person who attacked the Fall Maiden is out there still,” Olwen told them. The team looked a little stunned, Pyrrha expecially.

  
“You’d be careful not to let it slip to anyone, the only reason I’m hanging around is because I know people who would love to take the power from her,” Roman said as he wrapped an arm around Olwen. “And if I did sell her out to Cinder, Olwen has stuff on me that would get me locked away for eternity.”

 

“Really now, well then it seems I was right to send Olwen after you, now we need to find this entrance that the Grimm got through and seal it up,” Ozpin said. “Let’s search the backstage, follow me.” They searched the back of the theatre for half an hour, no hole or broken wall was found which confused Ozpin. He gave a glaring look to Roman who shrugged.

  
“Don’t look at me, I only blew up that one wall in the square,” he said. Jaune thought as he scanned the area and had an idea.

  
“Do you think they got in from underneath?” he suggested.

  
“Interesting idea but where,” Ozpin said. Jaune continued looking until he saw a set of stairs leading to under the stage.

 

“I think I know where,” he told them. They looked under the stage and Roman brought out his lighter and flipped it open. There in the middle of the ground under the stage was a large man-made hole.

  
“I think we found our entrance,” he said. Olwen went over to the hole and looked down, there was a ladder leading down.

 

“Give me the lighter, I want to get a closer look,” she said as she climbed down the ladder. Roman passed her the lighter as she went down and saw a large tunnel. “There’s a tunnel, a pretty big one, man-made, has been dug in and judging from the direction it’s going, it might lead us to Mountain Glenn.”

  
“Mountain Glenn?” Nora asked as she jumped down the hole.

 

“Guess we’re going down then,” Ren said climbing in after. Roman rolled his eyes at them all and followed as well.

  
“I had a map of Mountain Glenn’s underground system, there is no way this tunnel would lead there, why do you think I loaded a train with explosives, it was the only way to break the bulkheads,” he told them.

  
“Keep incriminating yourself pal,” Jaune hissed at him.

  
“No this is recent, not made by any Grimm at least, we’ll just have to see where this tunnel leads,” Olwen said.

 

* * *

 

They wandered for what felt like an hour, following the long tunnel which didn’t seem to have an end. Ozpin called up Oobleck to try and see if he could find any old maps that had tunnels leading to Mountain Glenn from the Vale Theatre. While he waited for a response they finally came to a fork in the tunnels.

 

“Well kids, left or right?” Roman asked them.

  
“Olwen, you, Roman and I will go left, Team JNPR you’ll go right, keep yours scrolls close by and call if you find an ending to the tunnel,” Ozpin said.

  
“Of course Professor, let’s go team,” Jaune said as they pushed on to the right side of the tunnel. Ozpin gave Roman a suspicious glance as they pursed the left tunnel. The left tunnel seemed to go on for another hour as they finally came to a stop. A strange kind of doorway sat at the end of the tunnel.

  
“What is that?” Roman asked.

  
“That Roman is a portal, not something you usually find in Remnant,” Ozpin said.

  
“The Grimm might have come through this?” Olwen asked.

  
“Perhaps, we need to activate it to know what’s on the other side, but we could also destroy it because who knows where it could lead,” Ozpin said.

  
“I agree with destroying it, there could be anything on the other side of that,” Roman said.

  
“We’re in agreement on that Roman, now stand back,” Ozpin said. He raised up his hands and is aura began to glow a bright green, there was a flash as the portal collapsed to pieces. “Now whatever is through that portal won’t come through, we should go check on Team JNPR and see what they’ve found.”

 

“What time is it?” Olwen wondered as she checked her scroll. “Three o’clock, it’s going to be morning by the time we get back to Beacon.”

  
“Dealing with Grimm is a serious matter, you were smart to call up Team JNPR and get them down here when you did. But I’m also curious about you Roman, only having one silver eye, silver eyed warriors are rare indeed, the only other person I know with silver eyes is Ruby Rose,” Ozpin said. Roman grimaced at Ruby’s name.

  
“Not something I want to have in common with her, but silver eyes ran in the family, my mother’s eyes were silver, as were her mothers, and her mother’s mother,” Roman replied.

  
“Any siblings?” Ozpin added.

  
“Just a dead older sister who also inherited silver eyes.” Ozpin smiled at this information.  


“Interesting,” he murmured.


	5. The Orange Rose

It was dawn when they finally left the theatre, Team JNPR found a broken bulkhead in the other tunnel that was quickly patched up with ice and the hole under the stage was filled in as well. When it came for them to leave, the sun was breaking over the horizon and they were stood in the square.

 

“We should head back to Beacon,” Ozpin said as he saw Old Man Shopkeep opening his store.

 

“We should, we have a lot of discuss and…the Maidens, the portal and…the impending attack, Roman, can you do me a favour and see if you can get any more information from this Cinder,” Olwen said to them.

  
“I can get some intel sure, might be difficult though,” he replied.

  
“I trust you’ll pull through, I’ll contact you,” she said, she leaned forward to give Roman a kiss which prompted the tiniest of squeaks from Nora. “Be careful.”

 

“You be careful Snowflake,” he told her. He watched them walk away and wandered on back to the Warehouse District. As Roman walked, he thought about the conversation he had with Ozpin about his family and his silver-eyed heritage. It pulled up a memory, happy ones and the worst one he could have remembered.

 

* * *

 

 

_“Happy birthday baby brother, can’t believe you’re ten years old already.”_

_“What did you get me?”_

_  
“You remember when we were in Vale and you saw that hat shop, well I managed to get the one you really wanted.”_

_“You did, you’re the best sister ever!”_

* * *

 

 

_“We have to tell him Mary-Anne.”_

_“I can’t, it’ll break his heart knowing what happened to her.”_

_“We have to do it now, before someone from her team tells him.”_

_  
“You really want our son finding out his only sibling was torn apart by Grimm, it’ll crush him.”_

 

* * *

 

 

Sometimes he wondered if she hadn’t died would he have not gone this way, not ran away at fifteen, started a crime syndicate and certainly he wouldn’t have allied with Cinder. Olwen had it all wrong, he’d never been a poor child, it was the death of his sister that made him cynical, that made him crave the need for survival, his sister and parents hadn’t survived and he needed to for her sake at least. As he passed a shop window that mirrored his reflection, he looked at it and took off his hat, the black roots were starting to grow in, he placed the hat back on and continued back to the Warehouse, hopefully Cinder would be there to give him more work to do.

 

* * *

 

 

Back at Beacon, Ozpin, Olwen and Team JNPR all sat in his office, listening to Pyrrha tell the tale of the Maidens.

 

“And you’re the Winter Maiden, how did you come about to become that?” Jaune asked Olwen.

 

“The previous Winter Maiden before me was a girl named Elsa, she was a former student of Atlas Academy. Ozpin recommended I go and meet with her because he thought I could receive extensive knowledge of the history of the Relics. Elsa was also very sick, it wasn’t something her powers could fight against, she picked me and trained me, taught me everything there is to know about being a Maiden, the powers, the Relics and how to choose my successor, she died about seven weeks ago and I inherited her powers. When I returned to General Ironwood to inform him I had become the Winter Maiden, he told me that I’d need to see Ozpin immediately, I got wind of the situation with the Huntsmen security and got a ship back to Vale,” Olwen explained to them all.

 

“And what about the Fall Maiden?” Nora asked.

  
“Yeah can’t you inherit her power as well?” Jaune added on.

 

“It’s not possible, a Maiden can only inherit one season, they were four sisters in the beginning and four sisters they have to remain, no one knows what would happen if two Maiden powers were to join.”

 

“We must also start preparing for the next Fall Maiden, I need to wait for Qrow and James to arrive before we prepare, but I believe that Pyrrha is the most successful candidate to receive the powers, although it would only be half because of Amber’s condition,” Ozpin told them.

  
“Me…that’s, that’s a lot of responsibility,” Pyrrha said.

  
“You don’t have to make a decision now, you can think on it, but you should all go and rest, you’ve had a long night,” Ozpin told them. They all left Ozpin’s office and returned to the dorms.

  
“You can stay with us Olwen, we’ll make up the sleeping bag for you,” Ren told her.

  
“Thank you Ren, you guys are a great team,” Olwen replied.

  
“Why not get Team RWBY to help you as well, or is it the fact that Ruby has kicked Torchwick’s butt so many times, it’d be bad,” Jaune wondered.

  
“Well it is that, also I don’t want Ruby knowing about me and Torchwick, that we’ve fought and that we’ve…you know,” Olwen said.

  
“Kissed,” Nora cut in.

  
“Yes Nora, I kissed him, he’s not so bad he’s just chaotic, no real alignment to good or evil, just follows the money trail,” she said to Nora.

  
“I think it’s weird, it’s Roman Torchwick, the guy's robbed Dust stores, armed the White Fang, and he blew up a train and let a lot of Grimm into the city, I don’t know how you can be attracted to that,” Jaune said.

  
“Jaune, it’s a bit more complicated, he has a charming demeanour and underneath that suave criminal charm, there’s something very vulnerable,” Olwen said.

  
“Who can also fight Grimm with one eye, literally,” Nora added.

  
“Yes, one silver eye, you ever heard of such a thing?” Olwen asked them.

  
“No, silver-eyed warriors were just stories to me, Ruby has silver eyes, from what she’s told me it’s a pretty rare trait,” Jaune said.

  
“So rare that Roman, his older sister, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother all had silver eyes as well, he told Ozpin,” Olwen said.

  
“He has an older sister?” Nora asked not believing.

  
“Had, she’s dead,” Olwen corrected her.

  
“It’s funny you mention it because Ruby’s mother also had silver eyes and she died about thirteen years ago,” Jaune told her.

 

“You don’t think Roman and Ruby are related do you?” Nora suggested.

  
“Don’t say that, Ruby would freak out if Roman was her uncle,” Jaune said slightly disgusted by the idea. Nora laughed at the thought.

  
“I’d love to see her face if it was true,” she said. It was amusing, Olwen had to admit.

 

* * *

 

 

For the rest of the day Olwen spent most of it sleeping, as did Team JNPR, Ozpin had excused them from classes and after classes were out for the day, Ruby, Yang and Blake stopped by to see them.

  
“Hey how are you guys, I heard there was a Grimm attack at the Vale Theatre last night,” Blake said to them as they entered the dorm room.

 

“Yeah, The Girl in the Tower was playing and then five Beowulf’s appeared on stage and they were real, turns out there was a tunnel underneath the stage and they got through that way,” Olwen told her.

 

“Why did you go to a play?” Ruby asked.

  
“Because she was on a date, don’t deny it, you smooched him,” Nora said.

  
“Who did you smooch?” Yang asked immediately curious. Olwen glared at Nora who grinned to convey innocence.

  
“This guy I’m dating, pretty classy, not a huntsman though,” Olwen said. Jaune scoffed at the classy comment.

  
“What’s his name?” Ruby asked her. Olwen paused, what would be a good cover?

 

“Didn’t you tell us yesterday that his name was Silver or something?” Pyrrha said

 

“Silver yeah, that’s his last name, he goes by Silver,” Olwen said.

  
“Silver huh, interesting name, is he cute?” Yang asked.

  
“I’d say so,” Olwen said. Jaune laughed again. “He’s not bad when you get to know him.”

 

“I’d love to meet him, see the man who’s stolen your heart,” Yang said.

  
“You can’t,” Olwen blurted out suddenly. “He’s…he’s shy around new people.”

 

“So is Jaune,” Ruby pointed out. Olwen sighed, it was going to be hard to convince them. But she was still pretty tired.

  
“I’m pretty tired, I think I’m going to get a few more hours in if you don’t mind,” she said.

 

“Sure thing, we won’t disturb you,” Pyrrha said and ushered everyone out of the door. Olwen got back into the sleeping bag and fell asleep quickly.

 

* * *

 

 

When Olwen awoke it was late, Team JNPR were asleep in their bed and the lights were out. She then looked at her scroll which had a message from Roman saying: I’m outside. Curious as to why he was at Beacon she left the dorm room to see Roman standing at the end of the corridor.

 

“Hey Snowflake,” he said with a grin.

  
“Hey Silver,” she replied.

  
“Silver, is that my new nickname?” he asked her.

 

“It’s your codename, Ruby and Yang wanted to know who I went on date with and I said I went out with a classy guy named Silver,” she said approaching him.

 

“I like it, and by the way I wasn’t kidding about the salacious acts,” he said pushing her gently against the wall.

  
“Really now, not sure where we could go that we wouldn’t get caught,” she told him.

  
“I have an idea, no one’s going to be teaching this late at night and I have something to keep us quiet,” he said.

  
“Oh really, well you’ll have to show me, but first let me savour something sweet,” she said and kissed him. For some reason she was reminded of an autumn night mixed with the taste of cinnamon when she kissed him. From down the hall, one of the doors opened quietly and out peeked Ruby Rose. Her eyes widened in shock at what she saw and closed the door quickly.

 

“I did not just see that,” she muttered to herself. From outside, Olwen tugged at Roman’s coat and pulled away from him.

  
“Follow me,” she muttered and led him around the corner.

 

* * *

 

 

Olwen led him down to the lecture halls and managed to find one, the blinds were drawn and empty. She brought him down the steps to the desk and pushed him against it.

  
“I think this will suffice,” she said.

  
“Are you sure there are no teachers behind those doors?” Roman asked her.

  
“Teachers get their own building like the dorms, no one’ll know we’re here, now what is it that you have?” she said to him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a leather strap with a ball attached, the ball had three holes drilled through.

 

“Well, well Roman Torchwick and who is going to wear this?” she asked him slightly impressed by the device.

  
“Me,” he said. “I come across as an intimidating criminal, but I can be submissive when I want to.” Olwen grinned and took the gag.  


“Open wide then,” she said. He did so and she undid the strap and placed the ball in his mouth, buckling the strap at the back of his head. Somehow with the gag in his mouth he looked pretty sexy. She undid his coat, pulled off the scarf and placed it on the table, even pushing his hat off his head. She undid the buttons on his shirt and tossing it to the floor and getting a good look at him.

 

“My, my, you certainly look good,” she said as she pulled off the white shirt she had been wearing. He couldn’t speak but the way his eyes widened as she took off her shirt seemed to arouse him a little. She then picked up the scarf from the table and tied it around his eyes. He seemed confused but then she saw the smile from behind the ball. “If you want to stop, just say Maiden,” she whispered to him. He nodded at the safe word and in the darkness felt her hands explore him. Starting from his shoulders, trailing down his stomach and stopping at the belt which he felt being undone. His breath seemed to catch as his senses began to heighten.


	6. From The Inside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got a bit heavy and required the rating change and BDSM tags.

In the darkness of the blindfold, Roman could feel every sensitive touch, every light kiss upon his skin, every hot breath that made his spine shiver with anticipation. The restriction felt liberating to him, if only he was bound more, he would feel more alive. Her warm hands removed the belt from his waist, felt his trousers get pulled down and then her hands reached down into his boxers and grab his hardening member. He made a slight moan through the gag as he felt her breath again upon his face.

  
“Are you good?” she asked him. He nodded, a content moan escaping the gag.

 

“Good, remember, Maiden,” she reminded him and gently pushed him back onto the desk. His back met the mahogany table, one hand supporting his neck and the other gently teasing him, a quick nip against his neck a tug on his member as he felt a strange catch of breaths that almost choked him.

  
“Breathe in and out, slowly,” she told him, letting him go and guiding his hand down her body, she had taken her clothes off. Her skin felt cold almost, except her hands, was it the Maiden magic within her, he had a slight image of her eyes lighting up with the magic of winter. His breathing regained as he felt warmth and wetness around his manhood. He was within her, somehow it felt more incredible than he’d initially thought. He moaned again feeling her whole body against him. The rhythmic movement of her hips against his, he was elated as his hands tried to find her. He wanted to kiss her, a craving he’d have to wait. The one downside of this gag.

  
“Roman, are you okay?” he heard her whisper to his ear. He nodded again and his hand ran up her shoulder and neck to her cheek. He was holding on well, he wanted it to keep lasting, perhaps even not finish and just savour this feeling. “Good, do you want me to do anything rough?” He nodded again, much like when she overpowered him in that fight, he wanted her to do it again, hit him harder perhaps. “Do you want me to bite you?” he nodded, yes he wanted that, to feel her sink her teeth into him.

 

He moaned out as he felt her bite down on his neck, his body thrusting at the bite.

  
“Again,” he said, his words muffled through the ball.

  
“Again?” she asked. He nodded. He nodded, she complied and he felt her bite down again on his collarbone. He cried out at the pain and pleasure of it, his body corresponding with the pain, it was working, at any moment, he would come inside her, what a high that would be for him.

 

“Again?” she asked him. He nodded, moaning as he did. His hand gripped the desk as she bit down again, this time on his waist, his hips seemed to buckle as he gripped the desk harder, his moans escaping louder, his mouth filling with saliva that leaked out past the ball, dripping down his chin. He was so close, one more bite and he’d probably wake everyone up. He felt her breath against his neck, it felt tender almost.

  
“Again?” she asked. He nodded frantically, yes, yes, bite down harder. Olwen bit down on the tender spot she had first bitten and that was it. He cried out, muffled by the gag as he felt himself come intensely, fingers dug into the table damaging the wood and leaving deep idents that bloodied his fingertips, his moans became shallow breaths that slowed as he felt himself twitching within her. He felt the blindfold get taken off to see Olwen looking down on him with. She carefully removed the gag from his mouth, loosening it so it could hang around his neck. His jaw ached, but it felt good to have it released.

 

“Amazing,” she whispered, wiped the spit from his lips and kissed him with longing passion that he welcomed. She overpowered him, bit him like a feral beast and he enjoyed it. She was reluctant to move from him, to release him, she held him close, stroking his hair as she did. It was comforting, warm, it was nice.

  
“Incredible,” he breathed nuzzling her neck.

 

“Let’s go,” she murmured and got up off Roman, he sat up and he could see a bite mark on his hip that felt tender to touch. “Ozpin set me up with a private room, reserved for high profile guests.”

 

* * *

 

 

Once they were dressed, Olwen and Roman went to her private room. It was similar to the dorms, except for a double bed instead of four singles, and there was an en-suite bathroom added on.

 

“Beacon certainly knows how to live well,” Roman commented as he lay on the bed.

 

“It’s one of the best schools for Huntsman in Remnant,” she told him. “We live well here, when you get past the initiation that is, Gods mine was awful, but Ozpin seemed confidant in my abilities.” She lay down beside him and he put an arm around her.

 

“He’d be a fool not to,” he told her. She closed her eyes and nestled herself into the space between them. “But I need to speak to Ozpin tomorrow, it’s regarding the Fall Maiden, something he’ll need to know.”

  
“Sure,” she mumbled slowly falling asleep.

 

* * *

 

 

That morning, Roman awoke to see that Olwen had gone. On the desk was a pile of laundered Beacon uniform, some bottles and a note. He got out of the bed and walked over to the desk.

 

“Courtesy of Ozpin, I told him you were here, he recommended a disguise,” he read. He looked up at the mirror that was attached to the wall and sighed. He’d have to reveal the silver eye, something he was never fond of doing and also re-dye his hair it seemed. He picked up the bottles of dye and went into the en-suite bathroom.

 

About an hour later, he was ready, dressed in the Beacon uniform, his hair now black fading into orange and styled into a short side and long top style, the orange tips styled into a choppy faux-hawk. He almost didn’t recognise himself for a brief moment.

 

He left the room and went to the actual campus. As he searched for Ozpin’s office, some of the Beacon students looked at him funny.

  
“Who are you, we never seen you before?” he heard Cardin Winchester call out to him. He sighed and turned to him.

  
“What do you want I’m busy meat-head?” he said to Cardin who approached him with his team.

  
“We’ve never seen you before, just wandered who you were,” Cardin said to him.

 

“Oh you don’t remember me, I’m the guy who’s going to knock you on your ass if you keep bothering me,” Roman said sarcastically. This seemed to anger Cardin as he cracked his knuckles.

  
“I don’t appreciate being talked to like that,” he growled at Roman who was now looking bored with him.

  
“And I have to go, so unless there is something really important rattling around that cranium you call a brain, I suggest you walk away now,” Roman told him. Cardin gritted his teeth and threw a punch but his fist was caught by Roman who then twisted his arm and threw him to the ground. Cardin struggled to breathe as he felt the wind get knocked out of him and watched Roman walk away.  


“This isn’t over you one-silver-eyed freak,” he shouted to Roman.

 

“Haven’t heard that one before,” Roman retorted with a casual wave of his hand.

 

* * *

 

 

He finally reached Ozpin’s office where he was browsing through what appeared to be old student profiles.

 

“I have to admit Ozpin, these Beacon threads are quite stylish,” Roman said to him as he walked into the office.

  
“Torchwick, I almost didn’t recognise you for a moment,” Ozpin said and then chuckled.  


“What’s so funny?”

  
“Look here,” Ozpin said and be opened up a picture. “Look familiar to you?” Roman gasped a little, his sister and her team all in their Beacon uniform.

  
“I’ve never seen that picture before,” he said a little stunned.

 

“I stumbled across it yesterday after you told me about your silver-eyed sister in Vale, I put two and two together and realised that you were the little brother that Summer Rose always spoke about so fondly,” Ozpin said. “Looking at you now, I can see it clearly, it seems I was right to send Olwen after you, who would have thought that the infamous Roman Torchwick, master criminal kingpin, was originally Roman Rose.” Roman felt a twinge of grief, anger at Ozpin but ultimately shame.

  
“I didn’t come to talk about my past Ozpin, I came to talk to about the Fall Maiden, I know who attacked her,” he said turning away from the picture.

 

“Really, who then?” Ozpin asked as he turned off the images.

  
“Cinder, or as she’s now known, Cinder Fall owner of half of the Fall Maiden’s powers, she’s going to keep searching for the other half and I have a feeling that’s her motive for coming to Vale, she knows the Fall Maiden is here and is going to use the White Fang’s attack as a cover to get the rest of the powers,” Roman told her. Ozpin sat at his desk and thought deeply.

 

“Well this changes everything, Olwen is with Team RWBY and Team JNPR on the green, why don’t you find them,” he said.

  
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Roman asked him.

 

“Unless you plan to reveal yourself, yes, now go I have work to do,” Ozpin said waving him off. Roman didn’t question him and left the office, he hoped that Ruby wasn’t so bright that she wouldn’t recognise him or there’d be combat on the green.

 

* * *

 

 

When he found the green he saw Olwen sitting in a circle with Tea RWBY and JNPR, she looked up at him and she smiled, he felt shy all of a sudden, he was Roman Torchwick, charisma for days, he never felt shy, what had this girl done to him?

 

“Silver!” Olwen cried out as she jumped up and ran over to him to hug him. This was weird, Roman felt weird, an infiltrator. “You look good in the Beacon colours, I like the hair too.”

  
“I don’t know about the style, I liked it the way it was,” he said to her.

 

“What are you doing here, you were still asleep when I left,” she said.

  
“I went to see Ozpin about something important and then he sent me out here, bastard is really good at digging up personal history,” Roman said. Olwen grabbed his hand and walked him over to the group. Jaune looked up and his jaw dropped and let out a weird kind of noise. Nora giggled as she saw it was Roman.

  
“Everyone this is Silver,” Olwen said to them with a subtle glance towards JNPR.

  
“Hi,” Roman muttered. He noticed Ruby give him a very scrutinising glare.

  
“You look familiar, have I seen you around campus?” she asked very suspiciously.

  
“I’m relatively new, transfer papers got lost…twice, Haven’s a disaster for transfers,” Roman lied. He was a good liar but Ruby didn’t seem to be falling for it.

  
“Right,” she said still glaring at him.

  
“Hey you, silver eye, I told you we weren’t done,” Cardin shouted as he approached them all.

 

“Oh here we go, look meat-head I’ve destroyed you once today, would you like me to do it again?” he asked. Jaune stood up, this wouldn’t end well if Roman and Cardin started fighting.

  
“What are you doing, that’s Cardin Winchester, he’s a bully to most of us here,” Jaune said. Roman scoffed.

  
“Jaune you’re a big boy, surely you’ve learnt how to defend yourself against a bully,” he said as Cardin got closer.

 

“Yeah but I’ve dealt with Cardin, he’s the worst,” Jaune told him.

  
“Then watch a professional handle it,” Roman said as Cardin stopped.

  
“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here freak, you think I’m gonna let you humiliate me like that and not get my revenge, time to smash that pretty face in of yours,” Cardin threatened him.  


“You hear that Jaune, he thinks I’m pretty,” Roman said as he uppercut Cardin and then punched him hard that he flew back twenty feet. Everyone stared in shock as there was a weird orange glow around Roman and Cardin.

  
“I don’t believe it,” Olwen said as Roman raised his hand and Cardin was forced upwards.

 

“Now come over here,” Roman ordered as the orange glow that surrounded Cardin started forcing him to walk forward.

  
“What are you doing to me, what kind of freakish Semblance is this?” he said terrified as his legs moved on their own.

  
“I’m considered very persuasive, I thought it was just my charm but this seems to be more than that, now dance meat-head,” Roman said as Cardin’s feet started kicking.

  
“That’s enough!” Jaune shouted at Roman. “Let him go I think he learned his lesson.” Roman shrugged and released Cardin who fell to the floor weeping.

 

“Pathetic,” he muttered to Cardin who slowly stood up.

  
“This isn’t over you freak, same goes for you Jaune,” Cardin shouted as he backed away and started to run. Roman chuckled as he ran from them.

  
“Somehow I doubt it,” he said. He looked down to see a happy Zwei looking up at him and panting happily. “And who are you?”

 

“That’s our dog Zwei, dad sent him over for us to look after, I think he likes you,” Yang said. “So what kind of Semblance was that?”

  
“I’m not quite sure, I didn’t think I had a Semblance but apparently I do and its move people around like human puppets,” Roman said. Olwen smirked a little as she picked up Zwei and gave him a scratch behind the ears.

  
“How come you only have one silver eye?” Ruby asked still looking very suspicious. What kind of a question was that? Roman thought to himself.

  
“Not even Ozpin can answer that question, speaking of which, I have to go, call you later,” Roman said giving Olwen a kiss on the cheek. “It was very nice meeting you all, Jaune, Nora…Red.” Ruby glared at him as he called by the nickname he created for her and started to walk away. She looked at Olwen who merely smiled at her.

 

“Hey Olwen…do you want to take a walk, I heard from Uncle Qrow that you two met each other a while ago,” Ruby said to her.

  
“About six weeks ago in Atlas, he was really nice, let’s go,” Olwen said as Ruby stood up. Together they walked back into Beacon and when they were alone Ruby pointed at her with an angry look.

  
“I know that was Roman Torchwick,” she said. “I saw you two last night.” Olwen stopped and reached for her scroll.

 

“Where?” she asked her.

  
“Outside our rooms, I saw you two…kissing, why is he here, what are you planning?” Ruby started to shout at her.  


“Ruby keep your voice down, it’s a little complicated,” Olwen tried to say.

  
“I don’t care, you know who he is, you know the kind of person he is and he’s tried to kill me on more than one occasion.”

  
“I know, I’m not dumb, I know who Torchwick is as a person but I also know he’s not a bad person, has he done bad things yes, he’s a thief, a crook, but I also know that he’s got information that could save Beacon should the White Fang attack, there’s a lot going on that you don’t understand,” Olwen told her.

  
“Just shut up, shut up,” Ruby shouted as she went in for a punch. She was stopped as Olwen grabbed her by the arm and her eyes lit up with icy magic.

  
“You don’t want to fight me Ruby Rose, I’m much stronger than you think,” she warned her and let go. Ruby backed up frightened. “Trust me Ruby, we need Roman on our side, he’s like you, there is good there and if we can fully convince him to be a spy for the enemy, he’ll help Beacon out greatly.”

  
“I’m nothing like Roman Torchwick,” Ruby said and ran away from her back outside. Olwen sighed as she watched the girl run.

 

“If only you knew kid,” she said.


	7. Fall Maiden Pyrrha

It was a strange three weeks that passed. It took a large Lien deposit and the promise of immunity from Vale authorities but Ozpin finally convinced Roman to act as a double agent for him. He would relay to Ozpin information of Cinder’s movements and the progress of the White Fangs plans in return for protection. As the weeks passed more students arrived from the other academies and then came the arrival of General Ironwood and Qrow Branwen the day before the beginning of the tournament. Olwen waited with Ruby, Yang and Weiss as Qrow approached with his hip flask attached to his mouth. It had been cold between Ruby and Olwen, they would avoid each other and not talk, but Olwen felt bad. She had scared the girl with her Maiden powers and now she was worried for her. Roman had also stayed away from Beacon, doing Ozpin’s bidding and spying on Cinder, informing him of Mercury and Emerald’s presence as Haven Academy students and their affiliation with Cinder.

  
“Some things never change,” Olwen said to Yang as Qrow waved to them and Ruby darted forward.

  
“Hi kiddo,” Qrow said as Ruby jumped into his arms for a hug. “Hey Olwen, how’ve you been?”

 

“I’m good Qrow,” she said. “You look well.”

  
“I am, shall we go find Ozpin,” Qrow said as he put Ruby down.

 

“Do you have to go now?” she asked him.

  
“I do, but when we’re done, we can play some video games together, sound good?” he suggested. She nodded with glee and hugged him again.

  
“Sure thing Uncle Qrow.” Qrow smiled a little and gestured for Olwen to follow him. She nodded to Yang and they both started walking towards Ozpin’s office.

  
“So I hear from Oz that you’ve fallen into bed with Roman Torchwick, figuratively and literally,” Qrow said to her with a grin.

  
“He’s good that Ozpin, he was the one who wanted me to find Roman and distract him while he prepared for the festival,” Olwen replied.

  
“Guess it worked then ‘cause now he’s doing Oz’s dirty work,” Qrow added.

  
“Yep, spying on the people who plan to attack Beacon,” Olwen said.

 

“Well hopefully if he makes it out alive, Ruby won’t try to kill him,” Qrow said.

  
“Ruby’s not happy about the situation, I haven’t the heart to tell her who Roman truly is,” Olwen told him.

  
“I know, little Roman Rose, Summer’s baby brother who was going to follow in her footsteps, he hears about her death and turns into a criminal, I wish I could feel sorrier for him,” Qrow replied. “But whatever, if Oz thinks he’d be a good ally and you’re clearly fond of the guy, I’m just gonna have to roll with it.”

  
“We’ve got more important things to deal with, Pyrrha’s been thinking on the Fall Maiden offer for weeks now, she’s still struggling to make the decision,” Olwen said. Pyrrha had been quiet on the Fall Maiden subject for a while, ever since Ozpin suggested that she would be the perfect candidate, Olwen had given her advice and told her the experience she had when Elsa offered her the chance to become the Winter Maiden but it seemed to do little to help Pyrrha with her decision.

 

* * *

 

 

Inside Ozpin’s office, Ozpin and General Ironwood were in a discussion with Winter Schnee.

  
“General Ironwood, Miss Schnee, it’s good to see you two again,” Olwen said cheerfully.

  
“Miss Freya, you look well, Vale has been treating you well since you returned,” Ironwood said to her as she went to shake his hand.

  
“Oh yes, very well, how are you Miss Schnee?” Olwen asked her politely. Winter gave her the smallest of smiles, even Weiss could make a grin bigger than that at will.

 

“I am well Miss Freya,” she said in a rather cold tone.

 

“Alright then, let’s get down to business, Winter, leave us,” Ironwood said. Winter bowed and she left the office, leaving the four of them. Ozpin leaned back in his chair and pulled up the status of the Fall Maiden.

  
“She’s dying James, we need to act quickly, I don’t think she’s going to last much longer,” he told them all.

 

“Have you spoken to Pyrrha?” Olwen asked her.

  
“She’s on her way over, if she gives us an answer now, we might be able to give her the other half of the Fall Maiden’s powers before the tournament begins,” Ozpin replied. Qrow took out his flask and took a swig, it was empty he put it back and then took out his back-up flask and took a swig.

 

“How are the relics doing anyway?” he asked them.

  
“The Relic of Creation is still locked under Atlas Academy,” Olwen confirmed.

  
“The Relic of Choice is also safe, if Pyrrha accepts this, she’ll be able to see the Relic to know what it is she’s protecting,” Ozpin added. Qrow nodded and looked around for somewhere to sit, Ozpin never had chairs in this office of his.

 

“And we still don’t know about the Spring or Summer Maidens locations?” Qrow asked.  


“Unfortunately, however I have a lead I’m working on in regards to the Spring Maiden,” Ozpin told them. There was a knock at the door. “Come in.” the door opened and Pyrrha entered.

  
“Hello Professor Ozpin, Olwen, I…I think I’ve made my decision,” she said.

 

“And what is that?” Ozpin asked her. She looked down at her feet and breathed out.

  
“I want to do good and to help people, I never put myself before others, but…if you really think that I can handle the gift of the Maiden powers then I accept,” she said and looked up at them. Ozpin smiled and stood up.

 

“Very well, we shall get started, everyone, let’s head to the vault,” he said.

 

* * *

 

The vault was located deep beneath Beacon, in a large underground chamber. In the middle of the chamber, Amber lay in a glass case, a life support system beeping slowly.

 

“She’s very weak, so we must make this quick,” Ozpin said. Olwen placed her hand on Pyrrha’s shoulder for comfort.

  
“It’ll be okay, you’ll see,” she assured her. Pyrrha smiled, she wondered about Jaune, would he accept her for the powers she was about to be given.

  
“Do you…can I ask you something?” she said as they walked to the machine in the center of the chamber.

  
“Of course.”

 

“I really, really like Jaune and I think he knows that and likes me a lot too but…would this change any of that, is the Maiden aspect the most important part of it and…would it change me?” Pyrrha asked her.

  
“You’re scared and I get that, I was too, it doesn’t change you, but it will feel odd, you’ll feel the memories of a thousand lives that held the powers before you, you’ll have dreams of past Maidens, but it’ll get easier and I have a feeling that Jaune will stay beside you through that,” Olwen told her. That made Pyrrha feel better, perhaps when this was done, she would speak to Jaune alone.

 

“We’re here, let’s begin,” Ozpin said. Ironwood open the empty case for Pyrrha to step into, she gave Olwen a nervous glance who nodded at her.

  
“Go on,” she said. Pyrrha sighed and stepped into the case and it closed. Buttons were pressed and Aura started to glow as the power started to get transferred between Amber and Pyrrha. Amber’s eyes opened as she felt a name pressed into her mind.

  
“Pyrrha Nikos,” she whispered before her eyes closed again and her heart stopped. It was complete. The machine died down as Pyrrha’s case opened and she stepped out. She felt different, stronger even, and she blinked as one eye light up with a fiery energy.

  
“Pyrrha Nikos, you are now officially the Fall Maiden,” Ozpin announced. Pyrrha looked at her hands as a flame was produced and she marvelled at it, no Dust, no weapons, just pure flame.

 

“I’m…a Maiden,” she said not believing it.

  
“Not fully though Pyrrha, we have now reached a quandary, that two Fall Maidens exist, each holding half of the power, until you reclaim the other half you are not a full Maiden yet,” Ironwood told her.

  
“Don’t worry Pyrrha, we know who has the other half of the powers, we will see to it that we stop this woman known as Cinder,” Ozpin said. “As for right now, we need to get the Huntsmen into position, the tournament begins tomorrow and we need to prepare for the White Fang.”

 

* * *

 

 

When Pyrrha and Olwen returned to the Academy, Olwen called up Roman.

  
“Why don’t you find Jaune and tell him the news,” she said to Pyrrha before she launched into a conversation with Roman. Pyrrha walked over to the dorms where Jaune, Nora and Ren were sitting in a triangle playing a board game.

 

“Hey Pyrrha, you okay?” Jaune asked her. She nodded and smiled.

  
“Say Jaune, do you want to take a walk, I want to talk to you about something,” she said to him.

  
“Sure thing, if you two even try to take my houses I will destroy you both,” Jaune warned them as he stood up. Nora and Ren gave each other a glance, they were going to steal his houses. Pyrrha and Jaune took a walk down to a more secluded part of the school, no one was around.

  
“What did you want to talk about?” Jaune asked her. Pyrrha blinked and her eye lit up with the Fall Maiden powers.

  
“I’m the Fall Maiden, well half, I need to find the other half and claim it from the person who attacked Amber,” she said. Jaune was stunned, she had gone and done it.

  
“I can’t believe it, you were absolutely sure you wanted this?” he asked her. She nodded.

  
“Yes and that’s not all I want Jaune,” she said, she placed her hand on his cheek and leaned in close to him. “Jaune, I don’t know if you realise it, but you mean a lot to me, a lot, so much that…you’re the first person who saw me as more than just Pyrrha the destined Huntress, you made me feel good about myself, that I didn’t need feel so isolated.” Jaune wanted to speak but she stopped him. “Jaune, I care about you, I…I…” she stopped, he was smiling.

  
“I know,” he said. She sighed with relief and pulled him close to her and kissed him. It had finally happened, all that wondering and waiting but she had finally gotten Jaune Arc.


	8. The Vytal Fighting Tournament: Team Rounds

The day had finally arrived, the Vytal Tournament, thirty-two teams would go up against each other and only sixteen would make it through to the doubles round. Olwen sat in the crowd, Roman was with her in his Beacon disguise, Ozpin had started the plan to halt the White Fang and the first part was watching the Team Rounds and keep a look out for Mercury and Emerald.

 

“Up first we have Team RWBY versus Team ABRN, I must say this looks to be an exciting match, I can hardly contain myself,” Oobleck said with excitement and too much coffee.

  
“I agree Bart, it’s looking to be an exciting first match,” Port agreed. The match began and immediately Nadir Shiko was pushed back violently by Yang’s rocket punch.

  
“Ooh that looks to be painful, she got dented very hard by Miss Xiao Long, and much like the desk in my lecture theatre that got dented I will find the culprit who defiled my desk, I know you’re out there!” Oobleck said into the microphone.

 

“Think we should tell him what really went on with the desk?” Roman asked Olwen who laughed.

  
“Never,” she said. There was no way she wanted to tell anyone what went on in that room. The fight went smoothly with Team RWBY overpowering the other team and going through the doubles. Team JNPR won their fight just as easily with Jaune’s leadership and Pyrrha’s newfound strength. When the first eight matches had been completed, it was time to wind down for the day, they headed down to the mess hall at Beacon for dinner where Team RWBY and Team JNPR sat.

  
“Hey, nice fights out there today, any ideas on who’s going into the doubles?” Olwen asked them.

  
“Yang and Weiss are going to take the doubles,” Blake said to her as they sat down. Ruby glared at Roman and he ignored her.

 

“I’m going into the doubles with Nora,” Pyrrha said.

  
“And I’ll be cheering her all the way,” Jaune said and planted a kiss on Pyrrha’s cheek causing her to blush bright red.

 

“Jaune, please,” she said getting all misty-eyed. “How did you two like the match?”

  
“We enjoyed it very much, but I have to say Oobleck’s commentary is a little weird today, what happened with his desk?” Olwen asked as she gave a side glance to Roman.  
  
“A few weeks ago, Oobleck came into the lecture theatre to see his desk had finger dents in, blood and…well…let’s just say, someone had a good time on that desk,” Yang told her. Roman bit his knuckle to avoid bursting into laughter as he looked down.

 

“Really?” Olwen asked.

  
“Yeah, he was not impressed and instantly started accusing people, it was an expensive desk too,” Yang told her. Roman started to choke on his own laughter, it was hard to contain.

  
“I doubt he’ll find the culprit anyway, I however am very excited for my role in the tournament, Ozpin got all the Huntsmen together this morning and gave us all shift rotas,” Olwen said. “Lucky me, I’m not on the rota instead I’m acting as ‘chaperone’, so I’m getting paid a whole bunch of Lien to babysit you all, even though you’re all grown adults at this point.”

  
“Except Ruby though, she’s still only fifteen,” Yang said ruffling her little sister’s hair.  


“I’m plenty grown up, I got into Beacon didn’t I?” Ruby protested. Olwen looked up to see a group walking past and look her way. She nudged Roman who looked up and gasped.

  
“Cinder, she’s here, and that’s Mercury and Emerald and…I think that’s Neo with her,” he told her. Olwen looked at the girl with black pigtails, she looked familiar but she didn’t have the pink and brown hair.

  
“That’s not the Neo from Team ORNG,” she said slightly sad. “Being here makes me miss my own team, Goose had the best ranged combat I ever saw, he had an eagle-eye vision that allowed him to fire his sniper from a hundred feet.”

  
“Who were your team?” Yang asked her.

  
“Romaine, Neo and Goose. Romaine was tough guy, loved his mallet that also doubled as a cannon. Neo was graceful, good for deception, and Goose was…well he was Goose, but we loved him all the same,” she told them as she leaned on Roman.

  
“Where did they go?” Blake asked.

  
“Goose is in Menagerie, doing his part to help his fellow Faunus out, Neo I haven’t seen since I left for Atlas and Romaine went into teaching, it’s a shame, we were a pretty awesome team, we won the Vytal Tournament two years ago,” Olwen replied. Ruby leaned on her hand and thought deeply.

 

“You think you’ll ever get the team back together?” she asked her.

  
“One day, Team ORNG will reunite again possibly to defeat the greatest evil out there…adulthood,” Olwen said. Yang burst out laughing.

 

“I hear that, what about you Silver, did you have a team at Haven?” Yang asked Roman.

  
“Sure yeah it was…um,” Roman stammered, what kind of team could have had? “You know what it’s not important, I can’t get a new team until the New Year anyway, and I’ll probably get put with some new kids who don’t know a Grimm from a sock.” He said. He breathed out and slicked his hair back some more then saw Cardin again walking over.

  
“Oh for the love of-,” Roman muttered.

 

“What does he want now?” Jaune asked as Cardin walked over.

  
“Just thought I’d let you losers know I’m going to win the tournament and when I win, you’re going to be the first on my hit list freak,” he said spitting towards Roman. He glanced to Jaune who nodded, he’d had enough of Cardin.

 

“Meat-head you keep using that word so much that I don’t think you actually know what it means,” Roman said getting up from the table.

  
“Yeah I do it means- uh, you…shut up! Cardin said clenching his fists. Roman chuckled and summoned his Semblance.

 

“Very astute, tell you what why don’t you take those little chicken legs of yours and waddle on back to your babysitters over there,” Roman said to him as he eyed the rest of Team CDNL that were standing a little away from them.

  
“You know what freak, I’ve had enough of you, you just waltz in here with your head held high and act like you don’t even care, you think you’re so cool because you’ve got a silver eye and can make people dance and scored a hot huntress, yeah we all know about you Freya, well it's time to take you time down a peg,” Cardin shouted. Roman sighed, he wasn’t even going to move for this one. Cardin threw a punch but just as he did, he felt a fist collide with his jaw. He dropped to the floor and looked up to see Jaune standing beside Roman.  
  
“You too Arc,” he said.

  
“Cardin, face it, you can’t win here, so you better walk away,” Yang advised him. Cardin growled and stood up.

  
“One day you’ll be sorry,” he threatened them and turned and stomped away. Roman gave Jaune a smile and gently knocked his shoulder with his fist.

  
“You’re alright kid,” he said. Ruby smirked a little, it was nice to see Cardin getting taken down a peg, even if it was by Roman Torchwick in disguise. That thought disturbed her, he was a criminal, she shouldn’t be happy at him. One thing that she noticed was the way Roman looked at Olwen, it was pure unadulterated adoration, perhaps love, it was the same look her dad had in his wedding picture to her mother. That same adoration.

 

“Hey Yang, do you want to go find Uncle Qrow and play video games and then maybe give dad a call?” she asked her sister.

  
“Sure thing Ruby, you missing him?” Yang asked her.

  
“A little,” she replied. “I guess we’ll see you guys later.” Yang and Ruby left the mess hall together and Blake stood up.

  
“I’m gonna go find Sun and Neptune, want to come with Weiss?” she asked Weiss.

  
“To see Neptune, I…well sure, see you guys later, if you see my sister Olwen, can you tell her I’m still not going to call daddy,” Weiss said as she stood up and followed Blake out of the mess hall, leaving Team JNPR, Olwen and Roman.

 

“We should go too, we’ve got a date planned,” Jaune said with a gesture to Pyrrha, she giggled and stood up.

  
“We don’t want to be late,” she said. Ren looked at Nora who merely grinned and he sighed.

  
“We’re also going to go into town and get food, we’ll see you later,” Ren said to them. Once everyone had left it was just Roman and Olwen sitting at the table.

  
“And then there were two,” Roman said.

  
“And soon there will be none, let’s go back to my room,” Olwen said to him with a grin.

  
“I like the sound of that,” he agreed. They left the mess hall and returned to her private room. When the door was locked, she turned to Roman who had ruffled his hair back to its usual long side fringe that hid the silver eye and beckoned him towards her.

 

“Tonight, it’s my turn to be overpowered,” she whispered to him.


	9. And At Last, I Am Here

Pyrrha and Jaune’s date was just them sitting in the middle of their dorm room on his blanket with the very same picnic basket she had prepared for Olwen those three weeks ago. As a gentle folk ballad played in the background on Jaune’s scroll, he opened up a bottle of sparkling Rose lemonade and poured out a cup for her.

  
“This was a nice idea, I just hope Nora can keep Ren out in Vale long enough for us to get through this date,” Jaune said to her as she nodded her head to the gentle guitar that played.

  
“I hope so too, this is really nice Jaune, I wouldn’t have confessed if I hadn’t spoken to Olwen,” Pyrrha told him.

  
“Yeah, she’s pretty nice, I think she’s being a good influence on Torchwick, maybe when this is over and he drops the whole disguise, Ozpin will probably help him out,” he said as he sipped his lemonade. Pyrrha looked at him and smiled, this was nice, to be alone with Jaune, while she loved training with him to help him out, she also loved this alone time, it felt intimate, special.

 

“This music is lovely,” she noted.

  
“Isn’t it, I probably shouldn’t admit this but I enjoy a good folk ballad,” he said a little embarrassed. Pyrrha laughed and patted his hand.

  
“Don’t be, its lovely.” She kept her hand firmly pressed onto his for a moment, he looked down and then downed the rest of his lemonade and put the cup down.

  
“Perhaps you would like to move this elsewhere, to the bed perhaps?” he asked her, slightly unsure if that was the correct thing to say. Her eyes seemed to light up at the offer and she nodded.

  
“I would love to.” They both got and sat on the edge of Pyrrha’s bed, they sat close and looked at each other. Jaune was nervous, he’d never gotten this close to a girl, much less had a date with one and this was Pyrrha Nikos, she was on a cereal box. Pyrrha chuckled lightly.

  
“You don’t have to be nervous Jaune, you’ve never been nervous around me,” she told him.

  
“I know, it’s just, this is a good kind of nervous, an exciting kind,” he told her. “I just want it to go perfectly,” he said. Pyrrha gave him a peck on the lips.

  
“It will,” she assured him and took her jacket off. Jaune pulled off his Pumpkin Pete hoodie to reveal a Pumpkin Pete t-shirt bearing the same bunny logo. He gave Pyrrha another kiss as she proceeded to take his shirt off, she pulled it over his head and for a brief moment marvelled at his physique. “Perhaps we should go under the covers,” she suggested as she slowly undid the buttons on her blouse.

  
“Sure, that’d be good,” Jaune agreed. This was really happening, but they were taking it incredibly slow, which for him felt like a good idea. The idea of fast scared him a little. They removed the rest of their clothes down to their underwear and slipped under Pyrrha’s bed covers, he was glad he had chosen his branded boxer briefs that were comfortable fitting and not the ones that had rabbits over it. Pyrrha was wearing a matching set of a red lace bra and silk panties with a sheer behind. The same set she wore to the dance. They were huddled under the covers, closely locked in tender kisses. His fingers played with the bra strap, running his finger up and down it and gently pulling it down her shoulder. Her hand was running through his hair, brushing it gently. She waited patiently, but she was ready, she just needed to wait for him to let her know. His body told her otherwise.

  
“Pyrrha I-,” he began before pausing.

  
“Yes Jaune?” she answered. He merely smiled at her and gave a long and tender kiss.

 

“I’m ready,” he told her.

 

“Me too.” It was an awkward fumble as they removed their underwear but when they were fully naked, bodies pressed together, it was quite funny. Pyrrha lay back as Jaune positioned himself over her, she raised her knees slightly, spreading her legs to let him feel her and see how she felt. She was warm, his fingers found a trace of warmth, tightly curled hairs that hid her entrance and a wet sensation as he slid two fingers within her, she moaned slightly.

 

“Yes?” he asked her.

  
“Yes,” she replied with content. He removed his fingers, slick with her wetness and he slowly and carefully penetrated her which was met with a soft gasp that caused her chest to swell as she breathed in. He felt her thighs tighten around his waist as she began to move her hips. He began to thrust, first gently but then with a little more confidence each time as it went on. He rested his weight on one hand as the other began to feel her breast, thumb flicking her nipple and gently rubbing it. She giggled slightly.

  
“That tickles,” she told him.

  
“Sorry,” he said as he stopped rubbing her breast and moved his hand back.  
  
“It was nice, how do you feel?”

 

“I feel good Pyrrha, you?”

  
“I’m great Jaune,” she replied as her hands wrapped around his back and she pulled him close into a kiss. His thrusts got a little faster, he was feeling it happening, he had tried to restrain but it was difficult.

  
“I’m almost there,” he told her as he pulled himself up to rest his weight back on his hands let his hips continue. A smile was her answer as she closed her eyes to finish the ride. Jaune closed his eyes, concentrating on his body, on hers, his arms started to shake as his weight started to buckle, almost there. One more thrust, no two. He let out a high-pitched gasp as he felt himself come, he breathed out slowly, coming to rest on her body as he came inside her heavily.

 

“How did it feel?” she asked him stroking his hair, his head resting between her breasts that rose and fell with her breaths.

  
“Perfect,” he muttered, turning his head to look at her with a lop-sided grin, he leaned forward and kissed her, the two of them staying in this embrace, warm and content. They couldn’t stay that way for long, they would have to get dressed and unlock the door for Ren and Nora when they return. Jaune withdrew from her and lay beside her. He looked at her perky breasts and poked one, she giggled as it jiggled a little and she sat up.

  
“I enjoyed this, thank you for suggesting this date,” she said to him.

  
“I liked it too, I’d love to do this again,” he replied sitting up as well. He covered himself with the blanket and leaned over to fish his underwear up from the floor. Pyrrha got out of the bed and picked up her panties and slipped back into them. He looked at her, he liked her hair up, but down…he wondered.

  
“I bet you look really pretty with your hair down,” he said to her. She turned to him, grinned and pulled out her hair band, her hair flowed down to her waist but it was beautiful.

  
“I was right, you do look pretty,” he said getting out of the bed and getting back into his underwear. He gave her a kiss and let his hand run through her hair, it was soft. He reached out and pulled over her hair over her shoulder and nodded. “That looks good,” he said. Pyrrha looked in the mirror and for a moment saw what Jaune was seeing.

 

“I never knew how good it looked this way,” she said. Pyrrha had always tied her hair back because it was convenient, never did she realise that she had let it grow up into a rather pretty style. “I should have worn it like this to the dance.”

  
“Perhaps after the tournament, when the festival celebrations come to a close, I know everyone will be dressing up for the closing ceremony,” Jaune suggested. She liked it, a new style. They got dressed back into their pyjamas, packed away the picnic basket, unlocked the door for Ren and Nora, returned the blanket to Jaune’s bed and climbed under it to watch a movie. When Ren and Nora returned that evening, Nora squealed at the sight of them cuddled up under Jaune’s bed sheets watching a movie.  
  
“How was your evening?” Ren asked them as he closed the door.

  
“It was good, we had a nice time,” Jaune replied. Ren smiled and sat on his bed and Nora sat beside him.

  
“What did you two get up to?” Pyrrha asked them.

  
“We got food, the Red Light Café makes an excellent stew,” Nora answered. She glanced at Ren who shook his head.

  
“We tell them tomorrow,” he whispered to her. She nodded and look to her scroll. She pulled up an image of Cinder, her eye lit up with the Fall Maiden power. Pyrrha had confided in them with this secret after learning about Olwen’s powers, but it was bad that they now knew who held the other half of the power.


	10. Beacon Attack

The tournament had been a hit, Yang, Sun, Penny, and Pyrrha had all made it to the final, but trouble had begun. Yang’s disqualification after attacking Mercury unprovoked and Cinder was now within the stadium. Roman kept to his disguise, but kept the bowler hat on for aesthetic, and met with Ozpin before Pyrrha’s fight against Penny to discuss the White Fang attack.

 

“We need a strategy, should Adam Taurus arrive, he will be at the forefront of the attack, spoiled brat will want his face in the spotlight,” Roman told Ozpin.

  
“I’m a little more concerned with Yang Xiao Long’s disqualification, it’s caused a lot of disruption and outcry, I’m worried that the Grimm that inhabit Mountain Glenn will sense it,” Ozpin told him.

 

“So what do we do?” Roman asked.

  
“Right now we wait, you should go, Pyrrha’s fight will be starting soon, you need to be there,” Ozpin said. Roman bowed his head to Ozpin and turned to walk away. “One more thing Roman.” Ozpin said. Roman paused and turned.  
  
“Yes Ozpin?”

 

“When this is over, you have a choice, you can take off the disguise and reveal yourself as an ally to my cause or you can go back to the way it was, a criminal kingpin…who’s only friend who was the money that helped him survive, it’s your choice.” Roman walked away, he’d already made his choice.

 

* * *

 

 

He returned to the stadium where he found Olwen and Penny Poledina talking.

  
“Hello Olwen, Penelope,” Roman said politely.

  
“Hello Roman Torchwick,” Penny said back politely.

  
“Your perception is too good,” he noted.

  
“Thank you, I hope you will enjoy the fight, I know it will be so much fun,” she said to him.

  
“We should get back to our seats, Penny when the tournament is over, would you like to accompany us into Vale, I know you may not need sustenance but I’m sure General Ironwood wouldn’t mind letting you spend some time with us,” Olwen suggested.

  
“That would be lovely Olwen, I will also tell General Ironwood that you have adjusted well to your new power, he was most concerned after you left,” Penny said to her.

  
“He was right to worry, have fun Penny,” Olwen said as she gave her a hug. They returned to their seats as the last fight finished and the stage was reset.

  
“She’s a weird one, but she’s nice,” Roman said.

  
“Penny’s a treasure Roman, I just hope she’ll be okay, Pyrrha’s Semblance could be dangerous for her,” Olwen said.

  
“Metal and magnetism, I hope so too, Ozpin’s worried about what Yang did…she didn’t do it on purpose did she, she’s a hot head who has given me a beating in the past but she’s not so horrible as to attack someone unprovoked,” Roman said. He knew Mercury was a ruthless brat, Emerald was too, but his pain looked genuine when she punched him. Olwen shrugged, Yang pleaded for Olwen's support and she gave it, but she was sceptical, unless there was a way to prove it was provoked. Ruby came and sat next to Olwen, giving Roman a tolerable nod.

 

“And now our next fight, Penny Poledina versus Pyrrha Nikos,” Oobleck announced.

  
“It’s starting,” Olwen said. Ruby cheered for them both loudly as the fight began. They were strong, it was exciting and Penny and Pyrrha were battling it out. Ruby then noticed Emerald sitting in the crowd. She nudged Olwen.  
  
“Emerald’s in the audience,” she said to her. Olwen looked and saw the mint green haired girl concentrating on the fight.

  
“Roman go with Ruby, see what’s going on, I’ll stay here,” she said. Roman glanced at Ruby who seemed unhappy with it.

  
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Roman asked her.

  
“I trust you two not to have a punching match, now go see what’s up,” Olwen told him. He nodded and stood up.  
  
“Let’s go Red, she’s not supposed to be here,” Roman said. Ruby followed him and they left the arena. Olwen watched the fight, as the time passed Olwen started to get worried and then Pyrrha unleashed her Semblance on Penny, wires wrapped around her and she watched with fear.

  
“Pyrrha don’t,” Olwen whispered. Suddenly, there was a gasp across the crowd as Penny was pulled apart, her robotic element and wires exposed. Olwen choked back a scream at what she saw. Down in the stadium, she looked to see Ruby and Roman. Roman’s eyes were wide with shock and he was holding onto Ruby who was kneeling on the floor in tears.

 

“Turn off the broadcast Port,” Oobleck said.

  
“I can’t Bart, something’s blocking it,” Port cried with panic as suddenly the screens went red and a chess piece appeared on the screen and a feminine laughter rang out across the stadium.

 

“This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are in reality nothing more than men. Our academies' headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both.

They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference. And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First, a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honour and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither.

Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong, but I know that the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is equally undesirable.

Our kingdoms are at the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So, I ask you, when the first shots are fired, who do you think you can trust?” the comms was cut off as everyone looked up to see Grimm Nevermore and Griffins flying overhead and started to attack the barrier ceiling of the colosseum.

 

“I have to get down there,” Olwen muttered as she leapt forward out of the crowd seats and onto the stage guiding herself with her power, everyone was starting to run at the sight of the Grimm. Penny lay in pieces and Pyrrha was kneeling on the floor in shock. She saw Ruby and Roman and called out to them: “Get up here now!”

  
“Come on Red, you need to get up,” Roman said as he forced Ruby to her feet.

  
“P…Penny,” she muttered as she let her feet follow Roman and he took her up onto the stage. He gasped at the sight of Penny, he had to do something.  
  
“Olwen get Pyrrha out of here, I’ve got Penny,” he said and summoned his Semblance, pulled the pieces of Penny together so she could be held properly and lifted her up in his arms.

  
“Penny,” Ruby cried as she saw her lifeless eyes.

  
“Red, help me get her out of here and to a ship,” Roman ordered. “I don’t know how long I can hold her together like this. Ruby almost snapped into action, obeying Roman, but as she stood up the Nevermore broke the barrier and flew down. She ran to grab one of Pyrrha’s swords and leapt to attack the Nevermore as it eyed Roman and Penny. Just as it reared its attack, suddenly lockers all pinned it to the ground as it screeched out. Roman saw his own locker Ozpin had given him amongst them and summoned his cane to him with his weapon as the rest of the teams showed up. Everyone grabbed their weapons and began to attack the Nevermore in its vulnerable position.

  
“Let’s get you out of here Penny,” Roman said as he and Olwen left the stadium with Pyrrha to get to the ships. General Ironwood was defending the civilians against an Alpha Beowulf, Roman pointed his cane to the Grimm and shot it. It roared out and turned to him as Ironwood killed the Grimm.

  
“Torchwick, Ozpin told me you were around, what are you doing here- Penny,” he cried as he saw her held together with Roman’s Semblance.

  
“I can’t hold her together for much longer, you need to get her out of here and fast,” Roman told him as he brought Penny over.

  
“Men, take Penny into the ship and be careful with her,” Ironwood ordered two soldiers. They took Penny from Roman’s who’s Semblance dropped as he let go and they took her into the ship.

  
“Where are they taking Penny?” Ruby cried out as she and the others reached them.

  
“I’ll handle this Miss Rose, as for you all, you need to either get out of here now or stay and fight for Beacon,” Ironwood told them.

  
“I’m fighting, I need to find Ozpin,” Olwen said.

  
“I’m staying too, if I have to defend this place I will,” Roman said which surprised everyone.  


“I thought you would be the first one out of here,” Jaune commented.

  
“Let’s not get into this now,” Roman told him with a glare.

  
“Where’s Blake?” Ruby asked as she looked around.

 

“I have a plan, SSSN, CFVY, ABRN, FNKI you start taking the Grimm out on the ground, this is what you’ve been training for. Ruby, I need you and Roman to find Ozpin, tell him he needs to get the Relic out of here, I’ll find the rest of Team RWBY, Pyrrha you and Jaune need to get down there and start defending Beacon Tower and Pyrrha, use the power, I’ll be using mine,” Olwen ordered to everyone as she summoned her Winter Maiden powers.

  
“Everyone go now!” Ironwood shouted to them all just as a rumbling happened.

  
“Oh no,” Olwen muttered as their eyes all turned to Mountain Glenn and the Dragon that was now emerging from it.


	11. The Fall Of Beacon

There was no time to lose, everyone made it to the ground and started following the orders Olwen had given them. As she searched to find Weiss, Blake and Yang, she was stopped by a blast of energy and she looked to see Neopolitan standing with her umbrella.

  
“Neo!” she called out and ran to her best friend to give her a hug.

  
“Why are you here?” she signed to her.  
  
“Cinder sent me…I have to kill Torchwick and you…she knows,” she signed back.  
  
“You’re here, you’ve been here this whole time, Neo we were best friends, why have you sided with Cinder don’t you remember why I left for Atlas?” Olwen signed.

  
“I had no choice, you weren’t here!” she signed furiously. Tears welled up in Neo’s eyes as she looked at her friend with hurt.

 

“I’m so sorry,” Olwen said knowing her friend couldn’t hear and hugged her.

 

“Why didn’t you come with me when I left then?” Olwen signed. Neo shrugged, twirled her umbrella around and looked down. “At least let me help you now.”

 

“How?” Neo signed. Olwen signed a charade of an illusion being stabbed.

  
“Think you can use it to escape, at least get to safety, get out of here, go to Menagerie and find Goose,” she signed to her. Neo nodded and made a heart with her hands. Olwen made the heart sign back and summoned her Maiden powers. She summoned a large ball of magical ice and stabbed Neo. She stared in shock, froze and then shattered, the magic disappearing into the wind. Olwen looked to see her Neo had gotten away quickly and Adam Taurus staring at her in shock.

  
“You killed her!” he said. Olwen grinned sinisterly, her eyes glowing with the powerful Winter Magic.

  
“Adam Taurus, I should have recognised you from those tiny horns of yours,” she said as she pulled her quarterstaff from her back sheath and transformed them into their twin blades.

  
“Olwen Freya, the Winter Maiden, still believing in silly fairy tales,” he said walking slowly towards her.

  
“You attacked Elsa’s people remember, you killed her Faunus lover, you really think what you did was justified, she loved that girl and you took her life like she was nothing more than a pawn for your cause,” Olwen said.

  
“I did what I had to, to make the people Remnant see what Atlas was doing to my people, you never saw those Dust mines,” Adam told her.

 

“Adam!” Olwen heard Blake cry as she turned to see Blake and Yang standing away from them.  


“Hello darling,” Adam said with a smile as he reached for his sword.

  
“You stay away from her Taurus,” Olwen warned him.

 

“You can’t stop me,” Adam told her.

  
“Yang!” Olwen shouted as Adam lunged forward. She dodged out of Adam’s attack as Yang jumped in front of Blake and charged her power first and lunged forward, time seemed to slow for a moment as Adam’s blade sliced through Yang’s arm and she fell to the floor.

  
“Yang!” Blake cried out as she watched her fall.

  
“Yang!” Olwen shouted as she saw Adam start to run. She scrambled over to Yang who lay on the floor, staring in shock at the missing limb, he had cut off her arm.

 

“Yang, Yang, no stay with me,” Blake said as she cradled Yang’s head. Olwen tore off her jacket and covered the bloody stump to stop the bleeding.

  
“Get her to an escape ship, General Ironwood is evacuating everyone, I’ll go after Adam,” Olwen said.

  
“He’s dangerous Olwen, he’s not the person he used to be, you need to stop him,” Blake cried to her.

  
“I know, I’ve dealt with him before, get Yang to safety, she needs you right now,” Olwen said standing up and turning her blades back into her quarterstaff. Blake helped Yang to her feet, the jacket wrapped around her like a sling to keep her from bleeding out and she helped her towards a ship that was starting to touch down. Olwen called up Roman on her scroll.

  
“Have you reached Ozpin yet?”

 

“No, we haven’t, I saw Cinder fly over this way, did you find Neo?” Roman asked her.

  
“Neo’s fine, she and I used a little illusion to get her to safety, but Adam thinks I’ve killed her…she knew about us.”

 

“I told her Olwen, she had to know,” Roman said to her.

  
“I know, get to Ozpin, when I’ve dealt with Adam I’ll come find you at the tower,” Olwen said and hung up.

 

* * *

 

 

Roman and Ruby reached the elevator that led to Ozpin’s office, it was broken.  


“How do we get up there?” Roman said.

  
“Ruby, Silver!” she heard Weiss cry.

  
“Weiss, we need your help to get up to Ozpin’s office,” Ruby called to her.  


“Say no more Ruby,” Weiss agreed and summoned a series of glyphs to help them run up the wall. They followed the pathway and reached the top of the tower, jumping through the broken glass and collapsed brickwork. Ruby and Roman stopped to see Ozpin kneeling on the ground, Cinder standing over him, fire in her hand. She turned to see them and smiled. There was a split second as Ozpin’s body vanished into a fiery blaze and a brief ball of light was left floating for a moment before vanishing.

  
“OZPIN!” Ruby screamed out as her silver eyes began to burn a bright white light that blasted energy all around. Roman yelled out as he felt the searing pain, his own Silver eye responding to the power that increased the already damaging radius. When the light vanished, Ruby had fallen unconscious and Cinder was gone, the Dragon was frozen in stone bearing down at them.

  
“Holy…” he trailed off as he looked at the sight. He knelt down and placed Ruby's head in his lap seeing if she was still alive, she was, and he opened up his scroll.

 

“Come on Jaune pick up,” he muttered.

 

“Roman, was that you, what was that light?” he heard Jaune say through a crackly signal.

  
“Red’s powerful, but she’s unconscious, we watched Ozpin...I need you to get us out of here,” he said to him.

  
“A ship should be coming, hold still till it gets there,” Jaune said and hung up quickly. Roman laid Ruby down carefully and walked over to where Ozpin had been killed and saw his cane, he picked it up and retracted it and looked up at the Dragon. He felt his silver eye burn as he looked at the Dragon and felt the power spark. Suddenly a he heard a screech as a Griffin appeared and started to fly down towards Ruby.

  
“Ruby!” he shouted as he darted forward, his silver eye and green eye now both glowing with power as he jumped forward into the jaws of the Griffin. The beak snapped shut and there was a moment of silence as the Griffin flew up and suddenly exploded in a vast beam of light and Roman landed on the ground of the tower. His black and orange fading hair now had a large silver streak running through it. He saw a ship flying towards the tower and he waved to it, picking Ruby up. The ship hovered by the broken tower and the door opened to see Blake and Pyrrha. He carried Ruby into the ship and it took off out of Beacon as it lay in ruins of fire and Grimm.

 

* * *

 

 

Blake and Pyrrha lay Ruby down in a mat next to Yang who was now asleep her arm bandaged up. Roman saw Olwen wasn’t on board.

  
“Where’s Olwen?” he asked Pyrrha as the ship turned away from Beacon.

  
“She went after Adam,” Blake said as she stroked Yang’s hair as she slept. “What happened to you and Ruby?”

  
“We went to find Ozpin, Cinder killed him just as we arrived, her silver eyes triggered and she froze the Dragon, I think she damaged Cinder too but she was gone, I’m not as powerful as Ruby with my silver eye, just after I called Jaune to pick us up, a Griffin appeared, it was about to go after Ruby but I…” Roman stopped.

 

“What?” Pyrrha asked him.

  
“I leapt into its jaws to protect her and I killed it,” he said to her. He had never killed a Grimm, fought them and fended them off yes, but never outright killed one, he wasn’t trained for it.

  
“You saved her Roman,” Blake said. He looked at her with confusion that she knew who he was.

  
“How do you-?” he began to ask.

  
“I told them, when I got the call, I had to tell them the truth, that you were really Silver, you’re going to need to fill everyone else in on the details while we fly out,” Jaune said to him.

 

“What about Olwen, she’s still down there,” Roman said.

  
“She can handle herself Roman,” Jaune assured him. He had to trust the kid, trust him that Olwen would be alright in the ruins of Beacon.

 

* * *

 

 

After four days Ruby was still unconscious and she and Yang were taken back to her home. Weiss had been taken back to Atlas, Blake had vanished, Pyrrha had gone back to the ruins of Beacon, and the rest of Team JNPR were staying in the town near to Ruby’s home. Roman left message after message for Olwen, telling her where he was staying, that Taiyang had somehow recognised him as Summer Rose’s little brother and was letting him stay with them.

  
“Please Olwen, wherever you are, come back to me,” he said as he left a final message. He sat on the porch of the Xiao Long home, Qrow drinking in silence beside him and Zwei at his feet.

 

“I’m worried too you know, with Oz dead and…everything that’s happened, to lose the Winter Maiden now would be bad,” Qrow said to him.

  
“I’ve left every message, I know she’s getting them even if the tower’s been destroyed,” Roman said to him. He had cast off the Beacon uniform and his white tailcoat and was now wearing a simple black button shirt and black trousers, his hair was a mess and the silver streak seemed to shine bright in the late autumn sun. “I hope she’s okay.”  


“Me too buddy,” Qrow said. The door opened as Taiyang arrived holding a photo album.

  
“Hey Roman, I found Summer’s photo album,” he said and passed the album to him. Roman opened it to see the first picture being her with her Team, STRQ. He flicked through to see a lot of old memories, the picture of teenage Summer holding a month old baby with one bright green eye and one silver eye. The picture from their Summer in Atlas where he broke his arm falling down the stairs of the hotel they were staying in, and his tenth birthday where he received the bowler hat, a hat that had been swallowed by the Griffin and destroyed.

  
“I never missed her as much as I do now,” Roman said as he closed the book.

  
“I never realised you were her brother until I saw the photo’s why did you change your name to Torchwick?” Taiyang asked him.

  
“It was our grandfather’s name, after Summer died…I didn’t want to be a Rose without her, I ran away, changed it to Torchwick and started a life she would have hated me to have,” Roman told him.

  
“Well…you’re not the only Rose left, you never were, when she died Ruby was two years old, she wanted you to be at the wedding, she felt guilty that you weren’t there.”

 

“What happened between her and your parents anyway?” Qrow asked and took another swig from his flask.

  
“I don’t think they liked that she became a Huntress, I think deep down they wanted it to be a fantasy that’d she grow out of and come back, she never did, and now I’m worried Olwen won’t either,” Roman said as he looked at his scroll.

 

“Okay I have to ask Torchwick are you in love with her, she kicked your ass and what, love at first sight,” Qrow asked him starting to get sick and tired of his moping.

 

“Yes Qrow, I’m in love with Olwen, are you happy now?” Roman asked Qrow with frustration.

  
“I am now, I was sick of your moping, she’ll come back,” Qrow said to him. Roman sighed, he was right, she would return he just didn’t know when.


	12. The Vault Of The Fall Maiden

“Please Olwen, wherever you are, come back to me,” the last message from Roman.  Olwen sighed, she would return, just as soon as they retrieved the Relic.

 

“How are we doing Pyrrha?” she asked Pyrrha who was moving large parts of metal around with her Semblance.

  
“It’s tough, I’m not sure my Aura can keep up,” she said.

 

“Keep pushing, I think we’re almost there,” Olwen said as she and Neo pushed a chunk of debris away.

  
“Are you sure it’s here?” Neo signed to her.

  
“I’m certain,” Olwen signed back. Neo had ran to her aid after she saw her and Adam fighting. She had managed to chase him away but he had cut Olwen’s face pretty bad, leaving a large gash across her left eye. As the last piece of metal was thrown aside they saw the plaque of the Beacon statue in the main school lobby.

  
“Grimm watch, how are we doing?” Pyrrha asked.

  
“They haven’t gotten through the ice walls I’ve made, so we have time, I hope the key works, Ozpin gave it to me to give to you after the tournament, I just hope even half the power can open the Vault, how do you feel by the way?” Olwen asked Pyrrha as she took from her pocket a small clockwork watch.

  
“I’m okay, when I used the powers it felt…weird, Amber’s aura…it feels like a part of me, she died but she gave me the rest of her power,” Pyrrha said struggling to describe it.

  
“The machine was sketchy but it helped you become the Fall Maiden…partially at least, you still need to claim the other half from Cinder and we need to find the Spring and Summer Maidens,” Olwen said as she placed the watch into the hand of the statue. The hands spun around wildly as the statue raised up and an elevator appeared.

 

“Impressive,” Neo signed as she stepped forward.

 

“We need to be vigilant, once we’re done here, we’re going to find Roman and the rest of JNPR, and we’ll need to get to Haven Academy next but…” Olwen trailed off feeling a shiver run through her.

  
“What?” Pyrrha asked.

  
“Winter is coming, and with Winter comes the Winter Equinox, Elsa told me that sometimes the Maiden’s power can be affected by phases of the moon in its specific season, when the Equinox happens, it’s affected even more,” Olwen explained as the lift started to descend down further underneath the school. The chamber that Amber had been kept in was underneath Beacon Tower and this seemed to be underneath the school itself. The lift came to a stop at a large chamber with autumnal trees and lights and the floor had the symbol of the Fall Maiden and Vale.

 

“We’re here, the Fall Vault,” Olwen said.

  
“Have you been here before?” Pyrrha asked her.

  
“No, but the Winter Vault beneath Atlas Academy was similar, that’s the door to the Vault, let’s see if you can open it.” They all approached the door, Neo and Olwen standing back a bit from the door as Pyrrha stepped forward, she summoned her Fall power and touched the door, it seemed to glow and a pattern flowed through it as the door began to unlock itself. The doors slowly opened as they all looked upon a lush forest and a rock in the middle. There floating on the rock was a golden double edged axe with a red jewelled handle.

  
“Is that?” Pyrrha began.

  
“Yes, the Relic of Choice, yours to use,” Olwen said. Pyrrha walked forward into the vault and towards the axe, Olwen and Neo followed her and Pyrrha picked up the axe. She saw a split in the axe and a button, she pressed it as the axe then doubled into two hand axes.

  
“There’s two of them,” Pyrrha said.

  
“Yes, the relic of choice, an axe that becomes two, now that we have the Relic we can leave, return to Qrow and begin our next move, Neo can you do something for me?” she said. Neo looked at her wondering what Olwen could want.

  
“What?” she signed.

  
“I need you to go to menagerie and find Goose, meet us in Mistral, Romaine will be there, I think it’s time for Team ORNG to reunite,” she signed to Neo. Neo nodded and made the heart sign. Olwen made the sign back and they closed the vault.

 

* * *

 

 

When they had made it out of the Beacon ruins and the ruined city of Vale, Neo left for the coast to catch a boat to Menagerie, Pyrrha and Olwen went to Taiyang’s home. The afternoon was quiet as Olwen walked along the path towards Taiyang’s home, Pyrrha was in the town with her team resting up and spending time with them. As Olwen walked up to the house, she saw Taiyang and Zwei sitting on the porch. He looked up see her and called out:  
  
“Roman, you better get out here.” Olwen took a few steps forward as she saw Roman walk out the door and freeze. She was a mess, grime, dirt, and dust, a bloody gash on her left eye that seemed to be fading over a little, her once shining blonde hair was now caked in dirt, her clothes ripped but she was alive. He wanted to cry, he had to as he ran down the steps to her and flung his arms around her in a tight embrace.

  
“I thought you were dead,” he cried he held on tight, hoping this wasn’t a cruel illusion.

  
“I almost was, I chased after Adam but he was strong, I thought he was going to kill me but Neo saved me, she came back and saved my life, but what happened to you, your hair,” she said noticing the large silver streak.

 

“I thought, better the Griffin kill me than Red, she still hasn’t woken up,” he told her.

  
“What happened at the tower Roman, where is Ozpin?” Olwen asked him.

  
“Ozpin is…we were too late, Cinder killed him and then Ruby…she froze the Dragon, I’m just glad you came back, why did you wait so long?” Roman asked her.

  
“We had to retrieve the Relic and…we have to go to Haven Academy next,” she told him.

  
“All that matters is that you’re back and you’re alive,” he said and gave her a long overdue kiss. Taiyang smiled at their reunion and scratch Zwei behind the ear.

 

* * *

 

 

Inside Ruby had awoken and Qrow was telling her what happened from her silver eyes freezing the Dragon to Roman saving her life by killing the Griffin in the tower. It was a lot of information to swallow, bitter and strange but the strangest information she learned was Roman’s true origins.

  
“He’s what!” she cried out.

  
“He’s your uncle kiddo, Roman Rose, the photographs don’t lie and neither does that silver eye,” Qrow told her. She sat back in her bed and looked out the window where Roman and Olwen were talking, a happy Zwei running around them and trying to get attention.

 

“I never knew mom had a brother, much less it turn out to be him,” Ruby said.

 

“Life is funny that way, you never know he might have a whole bunch of stories about her that you’d want to hear, I have to get going soon, I have somewhere to be, you take care kiddo,” Qrow said standing up and leaving. Ruby sighed, everything had changed so suddenly. Ozpin was dead, Roman was family, Penny was gone, Beacon was gone and she’d lost everything. She looked through her open door and saw her sister sitting in her bed staring out the window. She got out of her bed and walked over to Yang’s room.

  
“Yang,” she said quietly. Yang was silent. “Yang, are you okay?”

 

“What’s there to be okay about Ruby, everything is gone, Ozpin, Beacon…Blake just left us, Weiss was taken back to Atlas, everything’s gone,” she said in a tone heavy with melancholy.

  
“I know but we can still save it, we can stop Cinder, we just need to-,” Ruby began.

  
“No, don’t you get it, everything is gone, nothing is going to change that, I mean…look at my arm Ruby, it’s gone, it was cut off while I was protecting someone who couldn’t be bothered to stay,” Yang cried. Ruby wanted to argue, but what would be the point? Yang wasn’t going to listen.

  
“I love you,” she said to Yang and closed the door.

 

* * *

 

 

Ruby went outside and sat on the porch, Zwei ran over to her his tail wagging, Roman and Olwen saw her sad look and decided to see how she was.  


“Hey Ruby, you finally woke up,” Olwen said.

  
“Hi,” she muttered.

 

“I’m going to go inside,” Olwen said and walked up the porch leaving Roman with Ruby. He sat down beside her, unsure of what to do and carefully patted her shoulder.

  
“You’ll be okay,” he said with very little confidence.

  
“Will I, everything’s ruined,” she said in a low voice.

 

“Where’s that blind optimism of yours, that sickly sweetness that romanticises the world?” he asked her.

  
“I don’t know, everything’s different now…why did it have to change?” she asked him.

  
“I tried to find out, Cinder was just really good at keeping her secrets, she spilled all of the White Fang tactics but in the end, her true intentions were what surprised us, not even I knew what was going to happen, you can’t give up now,” he told her.

  
“And why not?” Ruby asked him.

 

“Because Summer wouldn’t, when I was seven years old, Summer took me to the fair, we didn’t have a lot of money for that day but she made sure I had fun and when I couldn’t win that stupid little Goldfish, do you know what she said to me?”

  
“What?”

  
“She said, ‘don’t give up, you can try again tomorrow’ well you might want to give up today but you can try again tomorrow, what is that you want to do?” he said to her.

  
“I want to stop Cinder,” Ruby told him.

  
“So tomorrow you start that, you march over to Mistral and you say ‘Cinder Fall, it’s payback time’ Roman advised her.

  
“Why Mistral?” Ruby asked him.

  
“It’s the only place we know she has an affiliation with,” he replied.

  
“But I can’t do it alone,” she said to him.

  
“You won’t be doing it alone, Olwen has to go to Haven Academy and I’m going with her and due to all this Maiden business Team JNPR will be coming with us, so you won’t be alone,” he told her. She sighed and gave Roman a very weak punch in the arm.

 

“I hate your optimism,” she muttered. “So if you knew who I was, why would you still try to kill me?”

  
“I didn’t want to believe it, you look so much like Summer it scares me, I thought I was seeing a ghost,” he said. “Where is she buried?”

  
“I’ll take you there,” Ruby said getting up to go inside and change.

 

* * *

 

 

Cliffside Forest was quiet, Roman had never heard such silence before and it felt haunting. There at the edge sat a stone with a Rose engraved in it and the words:

 

_Summer Rose_

_Thus Kindly I Scatter_

“So Summer, this is where you’ve been this whole time. Thirteen years watching this view…I miss you. When you died I ran, I changed my name and fended for myself, mother and father died a few years after you, I hope it wasn’t the grief of losing us both, you to the Grimm and me to my own bad decisions. I’ve made a lot of bad choices, I’ve stolen, threatened, attempted to kill, and made friends in the wrong places…if you were here it could have been different, but if things were different, there would be one thing missing. I fell in love Summer, with the most beautiful woman I could ever have met and I almost lost her, Beacon is gone, Ozpin is gone, but she’s still here and we’re going to salvage what is left of this ruin. We’re going to Mistral, the enemy is still out there and don’t you worry about Ruby, I’ll be looking out for her…just like how you used to look out for me, I love you Summer, you were the best big sister anyone could have asked for.” Roman choked back tears, thirteen years of grief spilling out of him, thirteen years of a world without Summer Rose. Ruby patted his arm.

  
“You’ll be okay,” she told him. Roman wiped his eyes on his sleeve, he looked down at her and smiled.

 

“Thanks Red, we should get going, Haven Academy awaits.”

  
“I’ll see you real soon mom,” Ruby said to the stone and they turned to walk back into the forest.


	13. Joining The Enemy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't a very long one but I wanted a chapter dedicated to the introduction of Salem.

The broken moon hung low over the barren wasteland and Salem was furious.

 

“You let him defect to Ozpin’s side, you didn’t know about the Winter Maiden’s presence in Beacon and worst of all, you don’t even have all of the Fall Maiden’s powers, you only have half,” Salem recited. Cinder tried to speak but she was still badly damaged from Ruby’s silver-eyed power.

 

“The Fall Maiden was gone when we got there,” Emerald said for her.

  
“I don’t care, while you did kill Ozpin which I am glad of, we now have to deal with Torchwick, the Winter Maiden and this silver-eyed warrior,” Salem said. She looked around the table at her minions and pointed to the Scorpion Faunus.

  
“Tyrian, it’ll be your job to scout out for Torchwick and the silver-eyed girl, find them and bring them to me,” Salem told him.

  
“Of course, I’ll see to it that Torchwick is brought back here,” he agreed as he rubbed his hands with glee.

 

“And there is of course the matter of the Winter Maiden, if what I was told is true, then we have to be careful as you all know the Equinox can great strengthen a Maiden and the Winter Equinox is coming, she will be dangerous, you are to proceed with caution,” Salem told them. “The Winter Maiden will not get away from me.” A Grimm Seer floated into the room and over to Salem, she observed it for a moment and then looked up to the doors.

  
“Come in.” Four young men walked in all donning armour and weapons escorted by Arthur Watts who rolled his eyes at the sight of what seemed to be more children. “And who might you four be?”

 

“I am Cardin Winchester leader of Team CRDL, this is Russel Thrust, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark, we come with an offer of an alliance,” Cardin said.  
  
“And what are you offering in return for this alliance?” Salem asked them. Cardin opened his scroll and an image of Roman Torchwick was projected to everyone.

  
“I want that one silver-eyed freak to burn,” Cardin said. Salem leaned back as she looked at the image of Roman, one silver eye, now this was interesting.

 

“Well, I think we can come to an arrangement, tell me boys how did you come to be here?” she asked them curious.

  
“She brought us,” Cardin said and pointed to Cinder. Salem smiled and turned to Cinder who looked down avoiding her gaze.

  
“Well, well Cinder, it looks like you did more than just kill Ozpin, you brought us four new allies, come boys, sit, there is much to discuss,” Salem said and offered them seats. Everyone watched they sat down at the table. Salem leaned forward in her chair and leaned on the table. “Now tell me, what’s your favourite Fairy Tale?”

 

“We don’t have one,” Cardin said for them. Salem smirked at them and leaned back.

  
“Well this is my favourite story, this one is called The Man With Two Souls.”

 

* * *

 

 

_Once upon a time when the world was old and fragile there lived a man, he was lonely, emboldened with power but he kept to himself. One day four sisters came to him, each giving him kindness and in return were given extraordinary power. They received this power because the old man was fraught with guilt. Because he had failed to stop a great evil and thus the Gods cursed him with an immortal soul that would merge with a young soul in order to survive. In control of the Grimm this great evil could destroy the world with a single command if she so desired and he couldn’t have that. Supported by an army of Silver-Eyed Warriors the man waged war against the Grimm and its commander in a battle that ravaged this land. But it was a loss for him, very few Silver-Eyed Warriors survived the battle and the man was forced to flee, his cowardice being punished by a curse that so long as the great evil lived his soul would never find peace jumping from vessel to vessel, living through a thousand lifetimes._

_When the four sisters came to him, he took up the mantle again, following through the curse, finding the last of the Silver-Eyed warriors and protecting the four sisters and the women who would inherit their gifts. And so the old man created four Relics for each sister: Choice for the Fall, to choose to learn from the mistakes of the past or erase them entirely, Knowledge for the Spring, to learn the secrets of the world, Creation for Winter to let reflection create wonderful new things, and finally Destruction for the Summer, to destroy that which can be corrupted._

_When the four sisters were given these Relics there, four vaults were created in four separate continents, they were to stay apart forever for together they had the power of a God. The old man went through many lifetimes protecting the Maidens and the Relics, knowing that he had created something akin to a God and would have to keep it away from great evil’s grasp. The last soul that the old man merged with was a young prodigy, a Huntsman, handsome and daring, he became the youngest headmaster of Beacon Academy…but like the old man in the story, he too failed in his quest to stop the great evil and it’ll be a long time before he can ever try again._


	14. Menagerie

Blake missed Yang terribly, she regretted leaving so suddenly but she felt there was no other choice. She met up with Sun on the boat back to Menagerie and they weren’t the only ones.

 

“Are you okay Blake, you’ve been awfully quiet?” Sun asked her as he hung upside down with his tail.

  
“I’m fine Sun, why are you here again?” she said to him.

  
“Because we’re friends and friends help friends through tough times, Beacon was pretty bad,” he said to her.

  
“I watched Adam cut off my best friend’s arm whilst she tried to save me,” she said in a gloomy tone.

  
“That does suck, why aren’t you with her then?” Sun asked.

  
“Because I’m a coward,” Blake admitted. A short distance away from them Neo wandered over to the edge of the boat and leaned on the rails looking out the ocean, she checked her scroll but any long distance communication was down except for mail and she still hadn’t gotten a message back from Goose. She then decided to scroll through old images, of Team ORNG in their Beacon uniforms, them all doing the heart sign together. Their special symbol to show their appreciation. She remembered Goose always liking her the most, while Olwen kept to being leader and being friends with everyone, she and Goose would stick together the most, she taught him to sign and he helped her with reading lips and on occasion they would put on old subtitled movies. Her favourite was a silly comedy about a Faunus, and a human Detective duo chasing after a twirly-moustached criminal, Roman Torchwick reminded her of the criminal from the movie, from his fancy attire to the way he would stretch out his arms when he laughed. She looked across to see Blake and Sun, she didn’t want to talk to them and if they did try she wouldn’t hear them. She opened up an image of her and Goose, he was a Faunus with dark brown skin and a set of dark brown cat ears atop his head he had a big grin on his face and was making the peace sign. Olwen might have been her best friend at Beacon but Goose was her love, a sweet boy who wanted the world to smile, the day the Team went their separate ways was a sad one for her. She felt vibrations along the ground to see Blake and Sun approaching her. She quickly signed for them to stop and showed them the picture of her team. Blake and Sun looked at the image in confusion and Blake started talking to her, Neo sighed and pointed to her ears and made the sign for deaf.

 

“What is she doing?” Sun asked Blake.

  
“I don’t know, what are you doing here Neo?” Blake demanded. Neo sighed and typed into her scroll and pressed the audio button.

  
“I’m deaf!” the audio said sharply. That shut them up, she then typed into the scroll again and pressed the audio button again.

  
“I am heading to Menagerie to find my friend Goose, Olwen wants the team back together,” the audio said.

  
“Team?” Sun asked.

  
“Of course, Olwen had a team at Beacon, Team ORNG, Olwen, Romaine…Neo, and Goose, you were in her team and this Goose is in menagerie?” Blake said confused, she knew Olwen knew a Neo but not the Neo who worked for Cinder. Neo pointed to the picture again straight at Goose.

  
“That must be Goose, he’s a Faunus like us,” Sun noted. “Do you think we should team up with her, help her find this Goose guy and then join the others, she also looks very afraid of us right now.”

 

“I don’t know, let’s at least get to Menagerie first before we make any more plans, uh…how do I ask her for a truce?” Blake asked knowing nothing of sign language.

  
“I have an idea,” Sun said and took out his scroll, he typed out a question for Neo and showed it to her. She nodded and wrote an answer.

  
“I agree, the enemy think I’m dead thanks to my Semblance and Olwen’s quick thinking,” the audio spoke out. An alliance with Neo, Blake wasn’t keen on the idea but she had come to trust Roman if only because of his deception and Ozpin, he had proven himself to be caring, even after jumping into the jaws of that Griffin to save Ruby.

 

* * *

 

 

When the boat touched down at Menagerie after a lengthy battle with a Grimm Sea Monster, the first thing Neo noticed was the large house further into the island. She tapped Blake’s shoulder and pointed to it.

  
“That’s my home,” Blake said trying to sign a house symbol. Neo nodded slowly, it would be easier with the scroll but it only had so much power.

  
“So shall we settle in or find Goose first?” Sun asked.

  
“I think we should settle in first, take some time and then we look for this Goose,” Blake said as they walked off the boat onto the island. It was bustling with people as the marketplace filled with chatter and merchants selling their wares. Sun had never seen Menagerie before so this was a new experience, a whole island filled with people like him. Neo felt a bit out of place, but she had to find Goose. The house at in the center of the island was huge, regal and it was Blake’s home as she stepped up to the door, they opened and a rather large man stepped out, Neo shrunk back a little at him as a large grin appeared on his face.

  
“Well, well it’s nice to see you’re back Blake,” he said.

  
“Hi dad,” Blake said as she gave her father a hug. He laughed heartily as he observed Sun and Neo.

  
“And who might your friends be, my name is Ghira Belladonna, chieftain of Menagerie,” he said to them.

  
“I’m Sun Wukong and this is Neo,” Sun said holding his hand out.

  
“How do you do Neo?” Ghira said ignoring Sun’s attempt at politeness. Neo stood frozen as she looked up at him.

  
“Dad, Neo can’t hear you, she’s deaf,” Blake told him.

  
“I see, well don’t you worry Neo, I’m a master of enunciation so if you can read my lips you should have no problem understanding me,” he said to her as he held out his hand. She shook it and nodded to him, he was a lot easier to understand than Sun and Blake.

  
“Come now, let’s go inside we have a lot to discuss,” Ghira said as he led them inside.

 

* * *

 

 

Tea and noodles were served and Neo couldn’t remember the last time someone had been this welcoming to her. She sipped her tea, occasionally giving the odd sign here and there for something as Blake told Ghira of the events at Beacon.

  
“That is troubling and you say Neo here is looking for someone named Goose,” Ghira said. Neo nodded as she read Ghira’s lips and pulled up the picture of her and Goose, pointing to him.

  
“Ah yes I know him, wonderful boy, but I am afraid he’s not here,” Ghira said.

  
“Where is he then?” Sun asked.

  
“Goose knew of the change in the White Fang’s tactics, he came to me for help and asked how he could help stop them, I suggested something rather…unsavoury,” Ghira explained.

  
“What?” Neo signed.

  
“You are asking why he’s not here, I told him to join the White Fang as a spy, to find out what Sienna Khan was up to, his last report was unusual but I haven’t heard from him in several weeks,” Ghira said to them. Neo looked down with worry, she had to find Goose it was imperative.

  
“Where would Sienna Khan be?” the audio on Neo’s scroll spoke out.

 

“I’m not sure, their headquarters moved and I’m uncertain if it’s still in Menagerie, your best bet is to ask some of the White Fang that still linger around the island, two in particular, Corsac and Fennec Albain, brothers and devoted White Fang members, I reckon they could help, they’re coming over later,” Ghira said. “Blake why don’t you and your friend here go find your mother while I have a private chat with Neo about her friend.” Blake and Sun gave each other a glance and stood up.

  
“Alright, we’ll talk later dad,” Blake said as she and Sun left the room. Ghira stood up and went to his desk beckoning Neo over, he reached into the drawer and pulled out a letter.

  
“The Albain brothers are arriving soon, I need you to hold onto this, if you can find out where Goose is I need you to give him this, he’ll know what it is,” Ghira said to Neo as he handed over the letter. She looked at the letter and at Ghira and nodded, if it meant finding Goose, she would do that.

 

* * *

 

 

That evening something strange happened, as Blake and her mother had tea and Sun went out to go and explore the Menagerie night life, Neo was left alone on the back porch. She sent a message to Olwen letting her know she had made it to Menagerie safely but that Goose was working as a spy for Ghira and she would be a little longer getting to Haven. As she sent the message, unsure if it even could with the tower destroyed, she saw a shadow emerge from the trees and a masked girl appear before her. She had a long curled ponytail and freckled skin. She made a sign for peace and pushed forward a scroll with text upon it. Neo read the text:

 

_Are you the one known as Neo Politan?_

  
Neo nodded at the scrolls question. The girl wrote another question and showed it to her.

  
_Do you know someone by the name of Goose Grey?_

 

Neo nodded again. The girl wrote another question.

 

_Did you meet two brothers named Corsac and Fennec today?_

 

Neo nodded again. Shortly after her private discussion with Ghira, Corsac and Fennec stopped by for a chat regarding the White Fang’s presence in Menagerie, this gave her ample opportunity to ask after Goose. Corsac and Fennec were reluctant to give her much information, stating that he was working closely within the White Fang’s ranks but not much else. The girl then took her mask off.

  
“My name is Ilia, can you understand me?” she asked Neo. Neo nodded. “Good, Goose isn’t far, follow me.” Ilia camouflaged back into the trees and Neo followed her, leaving an illusion of herself behind. She followed Ilia through the dark trees until they came to a small sheltered area away from the main settlement. Ilia made a sound of a bird and someone stepped out, Neo’s heart leapt at the shape of two cat ears in the darkness as Goose stepped into the light. He grinned at her and made the heart sign with his hands.  
  
“Hello Neo,” he said. Neo could understand that, she ran to him, clutching him in a tight hug. “Thank you Ilia, may we have a moment.”

 

“You don’t have too long Goose,” Ilia said as she stepped away into the shadows. Goose gave Neo a loving look and let her go.

  
“How are the team?” he signed to her.

  
“Romaine’s good, Olwen’s now something called a Maiden, and we’re getting the team back together,” she signed back.

  
“ORNG is reuniting, why the call to action?” he signed a little confused.

  
“Beacon fell, didn’t you see the reports?” Neo signed to him.

  
“I did, but I’m in too deep here, I joined the White Fang as a spy, Ilia and Ghira are the only ones who know, we suspect a coup might happen,” Goose signed to her.

 

“Taurus?” Neo signed making the horns with her fingers. Goose chuckled and nodded.

  
“The very same,” Goose signed.

 

“Goose, we have to go!” Ilia commanded.

 

“I have to go, I’ll contact you,” Goose signed to Neo.

  
“Wait!” Neo signed as she pulled the letter out form her pocket and gave it to him. Goose grinned at the letter and stashed it in his jacket.

  
“Thank you Neo,” he said to her. He and Ilia disappeared into the overgrowth leaving her alone, she had made contact but it seemed a conspiracy was happening on the island and Goose was at the center of it all. It would be a while before they could make it to Haven in time to meet with the others.


	15. The Scorpion And The Puppet Master

“Pull!” Roman shouted as Olwen launched a set of icicles into the sky, he took aim and blasted several shots of red dust crystals that caused the icicles to explode. The remnants of dust fell to the ground as he checked the ammunition on the cane.

  
“How is the kickback, it was a tricky weapon to work with but I think I managed to improve it,” the Blacksmith said to Roman.

 

“I think you’re right good sir, kickback isn’t as unstable as it used to be, I think you did a good thing here,” Roman said as he admired the new look of his cane and the Blacksmith went inside his shop.

 

“What is that thing called anyway?” Jaune asked as he waited for his new armour.

  
“It’s called Melodic Cudgel and it’s been my weapon since I was twelve,” Roman told him in a matter-of-fact tone.

 

“So you’ve had that thing for eighteen years then,” Jaune said.

  
“Sixteen years Jaune, I’m twenty-eight,” Roman corrected him.

  
“Really, how old was mom when you were born then?” Ruby asked him as they waited on the Blacksmith to finish up Jaune’s new armour.

 

“She was twelve, she made a habit of calling me baby brother, were she alive today, she’d still be calling me baby brother at my age,” Roman told her.

  
“Did you ever get to eat her cookies, Yang said they were the best,” Ruby said.

  
“She taught me the recipe, if we ever get to Haven I’ll make them,” he offered. He and Ruby were getting along a little better since they had left to make the journey to Mistral. They had encountered very few Grimm along the way but it was nothing they couldn’t handle, with Olwen and Roman normally making the killing blow. Pyrrha had donned new armour to mark her Maiden power and allowed her old armour to be melted down and help improve Jaune’s. She had also melted down her swords as well so she could use the Relic instead. When the Blacksmith returned with the armour, everyone marvelled at the way it looked.

  
“You guys gave me some really good metal to work with, let’s hope you can use it to fight off those Grimm, but I’d be wary, attacks are getting progressively worse, so be careful on your way to Mistral,” the Blacksmith advised them.

  
“We’ll be sure to sir,” Olwen said to him and bowed.

 

* * *

 

 

They continued on their way towards Haven, several days passed as they got nearer to the town of Oniyuri. Having not seen the town on the map, Jaune was a little confused as they came across a town that looked half built and silent like a grave.

  
“What is this place?” Jaune asked as they walked through the entrance to the town.

  
“Oniyuri, a city that was to become its own Kingdom one day, the wealthy elite of Mistral hated how the council ran things and decided to make their own kingdom,” Ren told them.

  
“Clearly it worked out,” Roman said sarcastically.

  
“It’s going to be dark soon, we should probably find shelter here in one of the complete houses,” Pyrrha said.

  
“And excellent idea, too bad none of you will see the dawn,” a voice shouted down to them. Olwen turned defensively activating her power as she spied Tyrian Callows looking down upon them from one of the house roofs. She glared at him and tagged at Roman’s sleeve.

  
“Know this guy?” she asked him. Roman looked to Tyrian and aimed his cane at him, ready to fire a dust crystal.

 

“What are you here for?” he demanded. Tyrian laughed and leapt down onto the ground.

  
“I just want the silver-eyed girlie there…oh and to kill you all, request of the mistress of course, she’s pretty mad at you in particular Torchie, leaving us all in the cold, but you probably didn’t even know about the rest of us,” Tyrian said to him in a harsh mocking tone. Roman fired a dust crystal, Tyrian leapt out of the way as it exploded on the ground. “Now, now Torchie, you need to play nice!”

 

“Stop calling me Torchie!” he shouted firing more dust crystals. Everyone scattered and got into formation as Tyrian exposed a long scorpion tail to them.

  
“He’s a Faunus!” Nora cried out as she readied her hammer.

  
“A Scorpion!” Roman called back to her as he fired another dust crystal, the last one. Tyrian cackled manically as he revealed two wrist blades and began to run at Olwen manically slashing. Olwen fired icicles, leapt into the air and grabbed her Quarterstaff from her back, she landed on the ground in front of Tyrian hitting him hard in the face with the staff. He recoiled a little from the attack until he saw her eyes and grinned, his eyes widening with glee.

  
“You’re the Maiden, the Winter Maiden, oh Salem will want you bad as well,” he said and licked his lips hungrily at her. “Perhaps I’ll take you first,” he suggested as he advanced on her. She hit him with the staff and jumped backwards. Roman watched as Tyrian chose his new target.

  
“Red I need you to go full sniper, I’m going melee,” Roman commanded.

  
“Melee?” Ruby called to him as she turned Crescent Rose into her sniper rifle and aimed. Roman bared his teeth and his eyes glowed as the silver-eyed power took over.

  
“Let’s go Scorpion!” he shouted to Tyrian as he ran forward with his cane and threw the grapple forward. Tyrian turned as he defended himself against the grapple.

  
“Oh lookie here, Torchie wants to play!” he cried out as he turned his attention towards Roman.  
  
“Now!” Roman shouted. Ruby fired shot after shot as Tyrian dodged them, skittering around Roman and slashing at him. A Raven flew across the sky and landed on a roof. Tyrian laughed uncontrollably as he fought Roman, slashing at the man whose eyes were a blinding white with power.

  
“Do it, do it!” Tyrian egged him seeing the building power. Roman yelled out a beastly roar as the silver power knocked Tyrian backwards sending him through an already crumbling war. He was still laughing though. Everyone watched them, staying defensive should Tyrian come anywhere near them. Olwen looked to the Raven on the roof and made a hand signal, the Raven flew down and transformed into Qrow. Tyrian looked to see Qrow and laughed some more.

  
“Well, well a new challenger approaches, you’ll have to wait your turn,” Tyrian said as he dived forward, running at Roman whose eyes were still white with silver rage that was starting to make the veins in his skin start glowing white. He was losing control, this power was strong with one eye but that Griffin had done something else to him when it snapped its jaws around him, the large silver streak in his hair grew bigger as more power began to spark wildly.

  
“You’ll explode if you’re not careful,” Tyrian warned him with glee as he slashed Roman across the face, he screamed out the power vanished suddenly and he fell to the floor. Tyrian laughed manically, his yellow eyes now a vibrant purple as Roman saw that there was no blood on the blade but venom was dripping from Tyrian’s stinger. “Good luck living through that Torchwick,” Tyrian said as a bullet hit him in the shoulder. He cursed in pain as he saw Ruby standing there with her sniper, a smile on her face. He glared at her and ran towards her.

  
“You’ll pay for that!” he shouted. Suddenly a wall of ice erupted from the ground as he saw Olwen dive in.

  
“Qrow!” she shouted as Tyrian saw Qrow running towards him. They fought across the ground as Ruby reloaded Crescent Rose and Olwen ran to Roman, he had a large slash across his face that was oozing purple poison.

 

“Let me finish him,” Roman said.

  
“You’re poisoned you can’t continue like this,” Olwen told him.

  
“Watch me snowflake,” he said as he began to glow orange and, as if he had an invisible chain in his hand, he yanked his Semblance as Tyrian was suddenly pulled to the ground and dragged along it.

 

“What is this!” he demanded as he fought against the Semblance.

 

“You might be a Scorpion Tyrian, but I’m a Puppet Master,” Roman said to him as he slowly stood up and then threw him sideways into a building, then against the fountain, tossing him around like a ragdoll, Tyrian screaming as he was flung around. Finally Roman slammed him hard on the ground where he lay trapped in the orange glow.

 

“Surround him,” Roman ordered. Everyone surrounded Tyrian with Ruby and Qrow readying their weapons. Tyrian had bene laughing this whole fight but Roman now had him scared. He shrank back as he watch Roman walk over to him, the poison was setting in slowly, but he seemed to be fighting it. “You’re not taking any of us to Salem, not my niece, not my girlfriend, and certainly not me, but we’ll send you back.”

  
“What are you going to do to me?” Tyrian asked now scared. They all seemed to have an advantage on him and if he were to fight back, they could over power him again.

 

“What’s a Scorpion without his stinger?” Roman asked wincing from the poison. Tyrian’s eyes widened in fear as everyone looked down at him.

  
“You wouldn’t,” he dared them.

  
“They wouldn’t, they’re good kids but I’m not a nice person to people who threaten my family,” Qrow said as he transformed his blade into a scythe. “Now get out of here and tell Salem she’s getting sloppy.” The orange glow vanished, Tyrian started to scramble away from them and start running.

  
“He’s not getting away,” Ruby muttered as she transformed Crescent Rose and ran after him, he turned to see a sharp red blur dash past him and a searing pain as his stinger was cut off. He screamed out as he lost balance, hit the ground and then continued to run from them. Roman breathed in and out heavily as the poison started to get stronger and felt his knees buckle.

  
“Roman,” Olwen cried as she tried to catch him.

  
“I hope one of you knows how to cure Scorpion venom,” Qrow said to them he and Olwen helped Roman to walk and they left the abandoned town. Ruby looked down to see Tyrian’s stinger still on the floor, she picked it up and put it in her satchel and followed them out.


	16. Little Lies We Tell Ourselves

The story of the Maidens wasn’t new to anyone except Ruby, but the Salem was news to them all.

  
“Salem, that’s who is behind this all?” Olwen asked Qrow as she applied a compress to the slash on Roman’s face. “Hold that for ten minutes.”

  
“Ozpin failed to stop her once and he’s tried again, but it seems she’s getting more ruthless in her powers, she wants the relics and with the rumours of the Spring Maiden, I think she’s got her eyes set on Haven Academy,” Qrow told them.

  
“The Spring Vault of course, the Winter Vault is protected by Ironwood and his border control and we have the Fall Relic, what about the Summer Relic?” Olwen asked him.

  
“We’ve not heard from Shade Academy,” Qrow replied.

  
“We need to get to Haven quickly,” Pyrrha said.

  
“We do, Pyrrha you and I are going to scout on ahead in the morning, try and get attention from an airship, the rest of you are to continue on foot, Roman do you think you can keep going?” Qrow asked him.

  
“I’m fine Qrow,” Roman said as he held the compress to his face.

  
“Well, you should all get some rest,” Qrow told them as he stood up and walked a little ways away. Everyone unrolled their sleeping mats to get some shut eye but Roman wasn’t tired, he stood up and followed Qrow.

 

“Where are you going?” he asked Qrow who took out his flask.

  
“Having a little time to myself, how’s that sting?” Qrow asked him.

  
“Well I can feel my face again, which is an improvement, I almost thought you were going to cut his stinger off…until Ruby shot it off as he was running away, I never expected her to be that ruthless,” he said to Qrow.

  
“Yeah well, she gets it from me,” Qrow told him. Roman gave him an odd look.

  
“How would she get it from you?” he asked.

  
“Well Roman, let’s just say that I’m not exactly father material,” he said pointing to the flask.

  
“You…but I thought Tai was her father,” Roman said scarcely believing it. Qrow chuckled and put his flask away into his jacket.

  
“Summer chose me, Yang was just over a year old when Raven abandoned them so Summer and I stayed with them to help out, well Summer mostly, I was off on a lot of missions for Ozpin. Summer told me she was pregnant before one mission that had me stranded in Atlas for six weeks, when I was done I told Ozpin missions would have to be redirected to Ironwood or Glynda because I was about to have a kid,” Qrow explained.

  
“So why does Ruby think Tai is her father?” Roman asked him.

  
“It’s a lie we told her and Yang after Summer died, the wedding photo is just a picture of Tai and Summer, sure she’s wearing a bridal dress but I was the groom, Tai was the best man, we knew things had to change for normality, without Summer I…well look at me, I’m a bad luck charm who going to get liver failure in the next five years,” Qrow told him. “I couldn’t raise a kid with all the work I was doing for Ozpin, so for the past sixteen years I have been her Uncle Qrow.” Roman felt bad, both him and Qrow were a mess for the same reason.

  
“Summer’s death really screwed us up didn’t it,” Roman said as he took the compress off his face. He felt a bit better but it wasn’t going to be enough.

 

“You more than me, I turned to drinking and you turned to petty theft,” Qrow pointed out.

  
“So what do we do then, I can’t lie to Ruby, we’ve only just gotten past the whole me trying to kill her thing.”

 

“Just keep telling this little lie for me Roman, I don’t think she’s ready to know the truth about me yet,” Qrow said. Roman sighed, somehow Qrow was right. As he turned to walk back, Qrow grabbed his shoulder. “One more thing.”

  
“What?” Roman asked.  
  
“You need to start controlling that power of yours or your hair is going to go completely silver,” Qrow advised him. Roman gave him a single nod and walked back to the group and lay down on the sleeping mat next to Olwen.

  
“What did you and Qrow talk about?” she asked him.

 

“Nothing important,” Roman told her, he ran his hand through his hair and pulled a single strand out, it gleamed silver in the moonlight.

 

* * *

 

 

In the morning, the group divided for their tasks, Qrow and Pyrrha departed for the mountains to track down an airship as JNPR, Ruby, Roman, and Olwen went toward the next town. As they walked Olwen could see something was wrong with Roman, he was sweating, his eyes glassy and he was breathing heavily.

  
“Roman, are you okay?” she asked him.

  
“I don’t think that remedy worked,” he whispered to her, his whole frame wobbled dangerously and she grabbed him as he collapsed.

  
“Roman!” she cried, everyone turned.

  
“Is he alright, I thought that remedy slowed the venom,” Ruby said.

  
“Slowed it, not outright stopped it, he needs medical attention and fast, what is the name of the next town?” Olwen said as she saw the sign ahead. Jaune ran up to the sign as Olwen and Ruby helped carry Roman to the sign.

  
“Looks like the next town is Kuroyuri but the name has been scratched out, the only other route is the mountains that Qrow and Pyrrha are taking,” he told them.

  
“Well we can’t go through the mountains, the path is pretty difficult as is, we’ll have to take the village,” Olwen said.

  
“We can’t go to Kuroyuri,” Ren said. Nora tugged at his sleeve.

  
“Ren we have no choice, we have to go back,” she told him.

  
“No we don’t, we can catch up to Qrow and Pyrrha,” Ren said.  
  
“Ren, I don’t know if Roman can even make it to the mountain, tell you what, you two go find Qrow and Pyrrha, let them know what’s happening and help them track down an airship, Ruby, Jaune and I will take Roman through the village, if any trouble happens, I can handle it,” Olwen said to them.

 

“But-,” Ren began.

  
“No buts Ren, we have to do this,” she said to him.

  
“Fine, we’ll go, but be careful, bad things happened in that village,” he warned her. She nodded at the warning and Jaune and Ren embraced each other.

  
“Good luck,” Jaune told him.  
  
“And to you,” Ren replied. The two of them left to follow the mountain path and catch up to Qrow and Pyrrha as Ruby, Jaune, Olwen and Roman took the village path. Roman was drifting in and out of consciousness, his vision blurry, he knew he was being dragged somewhere. The venom seemed to be spreading quicker, slowing it down did nothing for him. As they finally reached the destroyed village, they brought Roman to the center of the village to rest against the dead tree.

  
“Roman, how are you holding up?” Olwen asked him as she tried to get him to focus on her.

  
“I want my sister,” he mumbled.

  
“Oh no, I think he’s getting worse,” Ruby said.

  
“Summer,” he muttered before losing consciousness again.

  
“Oh this is bad, I thought the remedy would help but if we don’t get help soon, he’s not going to last long,” Olwen said as she searched her satchel for something to help the situation.

  
“What do you think happened here?” Jaune wondered as Ruby tried to keep Roman held upright.

 

“Grimm attack, and it was a bad one,” Olwen said as she observed the ruins around them. Suddenly a high-pitched screech ripped through the air and Olwen froze, her eyes widened as a memory flashed before her.

  
“Olwen?” Ruby asked very worried now.

  
“We have to get out of here,” she said closing her satchel.

  
“Why, what was that?” she asked her.

  
“Something bad, something horrible, Ren was right to not want to come here, it’s going to come back,” she said as she stood up.

  
“Why, what is going to come back?” Jaune asked her. She showed him the large scars on her arm.

  
“It’s a Nuckelavee,” she told him as another screech echoed through the air. Everyone readied their weapons. Olwen gave Roman a worried looked as he lay against the tree, completely out of it, breathing steadily. “Keep fighting,” she murmured as they all heard the clip clopping of hooves and the Nuckelavee walked into the village.

 

* * *

 

 

Jaune had faced many Grimm, but this thing scared him the most, the limp body and arms that dragged along the floor as the horse Grimm it was fused to, walked into the village square and came to a stop. Suddenly the body started to twitch and move as the horse stopped moving and the humanoid body slowly started to crack and pull itself upright, it looked at them all and then screamed out. Everyone covered their ears and got into formation.

  
“How do we fight this thing?” Ruby called to Olwen.

  
“The last one I fought I was alone,” she called back as she split the quarterstaff into twin blade and activated her Maiden power. “It’s head is the vulnerable part of it, cut off the head it kills the whole thing but you need to…I know what I need to do.” She concentrated on the Nuckelavee and its hooves started to move uncontrollably as Olwen activated her Semblance.

 

“Now what?” Ruby asked her.  
  
“You need to pin the arms, Jaune, Ruby loop around the sides, concentrate on each arm, I’ll distract the head,” Olwen shouted as she leapt into the air and threw a large chunk of ice down at the Nuckelavee, it slashed the ice away, it’s arm extending and suddenly getting pinned down by Ruby.

 

“I got it,” Ruby shouted to her.

  
“Go Jaune!” Olwen commanded as she threw down another chunk of ice. The Nuckelavee’s other arm bashed it away and got pinned by Jaune, Olwen activated her Semblance again as the horse lost footing and hit the ground, she threw four balls of ice to the hooves, freezing them in place. Two heads were left and they needed to be disarmed. She split her quarterstaff into the dual blades and stabbed them into the horse’s head, the head twitched and was trapped beneath the blades as she looked at the imp’s head that was staring at her, its jaw hanging loose.

 

“I killed your brother in Atlas and now I’m going to kill you.” She summoned Winter magic and was ready to kill it when she heard someone shout:

  
“No!” she turned to see Ren and Nora walking over to them.

  
“You came back,” she said with a smile to them.

  
“Let me finish it, it’s the least I deserve for what it did to our home,” Ren said as he pulled out his father’s dagger. Olwen stepped away from the Nuckelavee and snuffed out the magic.

 

“You hear that you monster,” she said to the Nuckelavee as Ren approached it.

 

“You slaughtered this town, you killed my mother, you killed my father, you…you took away my life, but you didn’t take away everything,” Ren said to the Nuckelavee that was now twitching horribly and screeching. “Now it’s my turn to slaughter you.” With a three swift motions Ren cut off the Nuckelavee’s arms and slashed its torso and as it screamed and looked at Ren, hoping for some amount of mercy from the boy, Ren cut off its head and the body dissolved into a large plume of black smoke. Olwen turned to Roman who was watching them, he raised his arm slowly to give them a thumbs up and she ran over to him.

  
“Roman?” she asked him.

 

“I…I love you snowflake,” he told her through heavy breaths before falling unconscious again. There was a beeping sound as two airships started to descend on the village.

  
“They did it,” Jaune cried out as he started jumping up and down for the ship to see them. The ship landed as Qrow and Pyrrha jumped out of one of the ships. Pyrrha ran over to Jaune, planting a passionate kiss on him and Qrow walked over to Olwen.

  
“What happened here?” he asked her.

  
“Nuckelavee, we took care of it, help me get him up,” Olwen said as she and Qrow helped lift Roman up and took him over to the airship.

 

* * *

 

 

The airship flew them over to Mistral where they were put up for the night and Roman got medical treatment for the venom from Tyrian’s stinger. He was unconscious for several hours in their room as Olwen helped Ruby write a letter to Yang.

 

“I kind of wish we didn’t have to sneak away you know,” Ruby said to Olwen as she sat beside Roman stroking his hair, the large silver streak gleamed under the light. He would make a good silver fox, she thought to herself.

  
“I know, but it wasn’t me making the decision, it was you who wanted it, I get it though, you knew Tai and Yang wouldn’t let you go,” she said to her.

  
“Yeah, how is Roman doing?” Ruby asked her.

  
“He seems to be fine, the medicine the doctor administered worked and he’s recovering, hey…how much do you know about your silver-eyed power?” Olwen said.

  
“Not very much, I don’t even know how to use it, I’ve only used it once when I saw Ozpin,” Ruby replied as she remembered the split second of Cinder killing Ozpin.

  
“He’s got one silver eye, knows how to use it but it’s turning his hair silver, how dangerous were the silver-eyed warriors?” Olwen wondered.

  
“Uncle Qrow said that it’s speculation that Grimm feared them…perhaps they were really powerful against the Grimm one time,” Ruby suggested. It was a good point, but most of the warriors were long gone and as far as she knew, only two remained.


	17. Haven Academy

Several days after their arrival in Mistral, it was time to visit Have Academy, Olwen managed to get in contact with Romaine who was going to meet them outside of the Academy. The day was bright as they left the house and headed to the academy, Roman was happy to be in sunlight again after spending several days inside recovering.

 

“What kind of guy is Romaine?” Jaune asked Olwen as they approached the academy.

 

“He is…I’m not sure which story to tell, the five guys’ story or the one where he and Goose went streaking,” Olwen said.

  
“The streaking one kind of speaks for itself,” Nora pointed out. “What is the five guy’s story?”

 

“Oh he managed to get five guys to kiss him in the space of ten minutes or was it six, either way, he kissed a lot of guys, but the point of the story is Romaine is very bold, very blunt, it works in his favour a lot of the time,” she told them all.

  
“So we can expect him to be co-operative then,” Qrow said.

  
“Very much so, I sent word ahead,” she told him. Standing at the gates of Haven stood a tall and well-built man with long dark hair and dark brown skin and several gold piercings in his ears, he had a grin on his face and was holding a large mallet.

 

“Romaine!” Olwen called as she walked up to him.

  
“Olwen,” he said dropping the mallet and holding his arms out. “So delightful to see you again old friend.” They both went in for a hug and he got a glimpse of everyone else. He let go of her and approached them all.

  
“So this is everyone, Team JNPR, little Ruby Rose, Qrow Branwen, and that handsome devil there must be the man who stole your heart, be still I think he’s stealing mine too,” Romaine said with a smile.

  
“And apparently you’re the first man whose heart I’ve stolen,” Roman commented as he got a tight hug from Romaine.

  
“Now why don’t you all come on in, I don’t know where Leo is, probably hiding under his desk again, you know sometimes I feel like I’m the one running the show and I’m not much older than the kids I’m teaching,” Romaine told them as they all went inside of the academy.

  
“Leo been acting alright?” Qrow asked him.

 

“He seems to be acting more cowardly than usual, seems someone visited him and now he’s acting like every shadow is a Grimm,” Romaine explained.

 

“I wonder if it has anything to do with the Maidens,” Olwen whispered to Qrow.

 

“Could be, say Romaine, know much about the Maidens?” Qrow asked him.

  
“I know a ton, I love old stories and folktales I’m currently writing a thesis on the history of Silver-Eyed Warriors, takes a ton of research, not much is known on them, what would you want to know about the Maidens?” Romaine asked them.

  
“We’re more interested in the Spring Maiden’s Vault, is it being protected, have weird people started visiting the academy?” Olwen asked him.  
  
“So curious, why all the questions Freya?” Romaine asked her.

  
“Well this might be a shock to you depending on how much you believe the story but…well I am the Winter Maiden,” Olwen told him. Romaine stopped and turned to her with a smile.

  
“You did it, you actually did it, became the children’s fable,” he said to her sounding proud.

 

“I’m a Maiden too…half of one anyway,” Pyrrha cut in.

  
“Two Maiden’s in my presence, I feel so honoured which Maiden are you Pyrrha?” Romaine asked.

  
“The Fall Maiden, half anyway, Cinder Fall has the other half of the power, I need to get it from her,” Pyrrha told him. Romaine snapped his fingers and started walking as they all followed, heading on over to Leo Lionhart’s office.

 

“From what I have gathered in my research there has only been one reported case of a Maiden’s power being split in half. About four hundred years ago a pair of twin sisters were training under the Summer Maiden for the potential to become the next Maiden, they were both equally strong and both deserving of the power, the Summer Maiden couldn’t choose, so on her deathbed when it was time for the power to be transferred she thought of them both equally and her power was split between the twins. The power is not meant to be split, it has to stay whole, when it isn’t the power is weaker because part of it is missing, the twins never used the power for bad and always made sure to fight together for the combined strength, if this Cinder is the enemy then we have a huge problem,” Romaine explained to them as he opened the doors to Leo’s office.

  
“What kind of problem?” Qrow asked.

  
“Cinder used the power to kill Ozpin, she’s already strong with only part of it,” Ruby told Romaine.

 

“The Fall Maiden was a particularly strong one according to my research, Leo…Leo where are you!” Romaine called out.

  
“Romaine, is that you, I thought I told you to fight Grimm like everyone else,” they heard Leo say behind his desk.

  
“All the staff in the school is fighting Grimm, I’m doing my research, you have visitors,” Romaine said. Leo peeked over his desk and then stand up.

  
“Oh Qrow, how nice to see you and…who are the rest of you?” Leo asked him. Olwen glanced at Roman and gave him a nod.

 

“Lionheart you really need read your messages more often, we gave word ahead we were coming,” Roman said to him putting on the classic Torchwick attitude. Leo gave him an alarmed looked and took a step back.

  
“Torchwick, what are you doing here?” he asked in surprise.

 

“I’m here for your diamonds,” Roman replied sarcastically.

 

“Leo we’re here about the Spring Maiden, I might have a lead on where she is,” Qrow said.

  
“Oh really where would she be then?” Leo asked curiously.

 

“I’ve been doing some questioning and I believe the Spring Maiden is with my sister Raven,” Qrow told them.

 

“She’s with Yang’s mom?” Ruby asked.

  
“That’s what I’m thinking, I want to make a plan to go and find her tribe and talk to her,” Qrow explained.

  
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Leo said.

  
“And why not Lionheart, another Maiden is crucial, we need to get them before Salem,” Olwen said.

  
“But we have more important matters Miss, the situation with the Grimm is getting worse, everyone around Remnant saw what happened at the arena at what she did,” Leo said with a look towards Pyrrha.

  
“It wasn’t Pyrrha’s fault,” Ruby said in defence.

  
“Red’s right Leo, no one is at fault for what happened to Penny, but we’re in a tight predicament, Grimm at every corner, the Spring Maiden out there, I almost died getting here thanks to that crazed maniac Tyrian,” Roman said, he saw the way Leo flinched at the name of Tyrian, Roman placed his hands on the desk and leaned forward towards Leo, making sure he could see very clearly Roman’s glaring silver eye. “So are you going to help us or not?”

 

“No, it’s not our concern!” Leo said. Roman sighed, Qrow glared at Leo and turned away from him.

 

“Let’s go kids, you made a mistake Leo,” he said and everyone left the office. When the door closed, the emblem of Arthur Watts appeared.

  
“You could have at least tried improvising,” he said to Leo. “But Tyrian will be disappointed that he didn’t get to kill Torchwick.”

 

“I’ll try harder next time,” Leo said.

  
“If there even will be one,” Arthur said and the emblem disappeared.

 

* * *

 

 

That evening as Qrow went out to drown his sorrows in a bottle of whiskey and Pyrrha and Jaune tried doing hand to hand combat training, Roman showed Ruby how to make Summer’s chocolate chip cookie recipe.

  
“And then you bake them for twenty minutes,” Roman said as he placed the tray of cookies into the oven.

  
“It’s such a simple recipe,” Ruby observed.

  
“Yeah but your mom knew how to make them unique,” he told her.

  
“They smell good already,” Olwen observed as she grabbed a few chocolate chips from the bag and ate them. “By the way, when you guys were out getting ingredients, I went out and got you this Roman.” She placed a bag on the counter from a shop named Mistral Finery, Formal Wear. Roman took off the oven mitts and opened the bag, he gasped a little and took out a beautiful black bowler hat with a bright red band and a large red, gold, and orange feather.

 

“I don’t know what to say,” he said as he looked at the hat.

 

“You don’t have to say anything, I went in looking for a dress and when I saw the hat, I had to get it for you, it’s not the same as the one you had before but apparently the feather was hand plucked from an exotic bird from Menagerie,” she told him. He put the hat on and looked himself in the reflection of the kitchen mirror.

  
“How do I look?” Roman asked her.

  
“I’m reminded of the first night I met you,” Olwen said.

 

“How did you two meet, I never heard the story,” Ruby said as she followed Olwen’s example of taking chips from the chocolate chip bag.

 

“It was the day I met you Ruby, remember I told you I had to do a job for Ozpin, that job was to track down Roman, I did and I kicked his ass…and then he proceeded to ask me on a date,” Olwen pointed out.  


“It worked didn’t it and I kept your secret and you kept mine,” Roman said.

 

“Oh yeah,” Olwen said remembering the drive and she pulled it out of her pocket. “I guess you can have it back now, although if you still want to pull of the Schnee Vault job, I can keep it.”

 

“You wanted to rob the Schnee Family Vault?” Ruby asked him.

 

“Actually it’s the Schnee Dust Company Vault, I did some digging and learned that the vault has an exorbitant amount of Dust, several millions Liens and I’m really hoping there’s a crown,” Roman told her.

 

“How much Dust are we talking?” Olwen asked him.

  
“Enough to supply all the academies and schools twelve times over, it seems after my Dust robberies started driving up the prices, Jacques Schnee also started storing large quantities of Dust as well selling what little he could at the inflated price, I think he stole more money than I did,” he explained.

  
“I miss Weiss,” Ruby said as she leaned on the counter and ate more chocolate chips. the mention of Schnee reminded her of how much she missed Weiss.  
  
“You two were close I imagine,” Olwen said to her.

  
“We’re good friends, but not close I’d say,” Ruby replied.

 

“How come she didn’t stay with you then?” Roman asked.

  
“Because she was taken back to Atlas, from what I gather her dad is a jerk,” Ruby said to him. Roman picked up the flash drive.

  
“We could rob the vault and rescue Weiss,” he suggested. She shook her head at his suggestion.

 

“She could rescue herself,” Ruby told him. “I’m going to go and read comics for a bit, call me when the cookies are done.” She stood up from the counter and went to her room to read. Olwen leaned over the counter and snatched the drive out of Roman’s hand.

  
“I’ll keep this for now, you never know when we’ll need to rob a vault,” she said with a grin.

  
“You are dastardly Snowflake,” he said leaning to kiss her. She kissed him back and whispered to him:

 

“I love you too.”

 

“Where did that spring from?” he asked her.

  
“Do you not remember telling me you loved me after I fought the Nuckelavee?” she asked him.

 

“That day had a lot of gaps for me, I remember seeing the Nuckelavee, you running up to me and me telling you I love you, and that’s about it,” he replied.

 

* * *

 

 

After roughly fifteen minutes the timer dinged on for the cookies to be taken out of the oven and the rich smell of chocolate chip cookies could be smelled through the kitchen and living room. Pyrrha and Jaune ended their combat for cookies and just as Roman was about to call for Ruby, there was a knock at the door.

  
“You think Qrow forgot his keys?” Roman asked Olwen. Jaune stood up and went over to the door, everyone watched as he opened the door to reveal a young boy shyly standing there, twiddling his thumbs.

  
“Can I uh…help you?” Jaune asked the boy.

  
“Yeah, is there a Ruby Rose here?” the boy asked.


	18. Oscar Pine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oscar Pine is found and they learn more of the tale of the man with two souls.

 “I found him!” Qrow cried as he jumped out from behind the door and staggered in.

  
“I think her uncle could use some help,” the boy said a little concerned for Qrow as he flopped onto the sofa.

  
“I found him,” Qrow said again.

  
“I think he needs more than help at this point,” Roman commented.

  
“What is going on out here, can’t a girl read her comic books in peace?” Ruby shouted as she stormed in. She sighed and slapped her forehead looking at her drunk uncle on the sofa giggling away. “Qrow did you get drunk again?” she asked him.

 

“Now I see what he meant about not being father material,” Roman muttered to himself.

 

“Maybe…” Qrow answered. She heard a gasp from the boy and turned to him.

  
“You…have silver eyes,” he said to her.

 

“Who are you?” Ruby asked him as Qrow laughed some more.

 

“Uh well…my name is Oscar Pine…” the boy began.

  
“Wait for it…”

  
  
“But you probably all know me as…Professor Ozpin?” Everyone was silent, Roman remembered the cane and quickly left the room.

 

“I did it!” Qrow declared before falling off the sofa and passing out.

  
“Ozpin?” Pyrrha asked in shock.

  
“But…Ozpin is dead, I…Roman and I saw him die,” Ruby said not believing it. Oscar walked over to the chair and sat down, Qrow stirred and opened his eyes.

 

“How long was I out?” he asked them.

  
“Seven seconds,” Olwen said to him. He slowly stood up and went to sit down on the sofa.

  
“Did he age backwards?” Nora asked.

 

“He’s possessed!” Jaune cried.

 

“Or reincarnated,” Ren suggested.

  
“Oh, isn’t it weird?” Ruby said still not believing.

  
“Guys come on, you’re scaring him,” Olwen said.

  
“No they can ask, it’s just…it is weird yes,” Oscar said. He saw Roman walk back into the room holding something. “But you know, I’ve never met Huntsman and Huntresses before, I’ve only ever fought the smaller Grimm that tried to get onto the farm."

  
“I know the feeling kid, one minute you’re out in the field playing with your big sister, the next minute there’s a Beowulf snapping its jaws at you,” Roman said as he walked over to them.

  
“Well, we’ve never met a person with two souls before so first times all around,” Ruby said as she tried to lighten the situation. Qrow cleared his throat.

  
“Not to break up the whole getting-to-know-you game but we need to have a talk…with Ozpin, mind showing us your little parlour trick kid,” he said to them. Oscar sighed and nodded.

  
“Yeah, okay, just so you know I’ll still be here,” Oscar told them. He closed his eyes and there was a green glow of aura around him as he opened them again.

 

“It is so very good to see you again students, even you Roman,” the voice of Ozpin said.

  
“I missed you too Ozpin, even held onto this for you,” Roman said to him as he passed over the cane.

  
“My cane, I wondered where that had gotten to,” Ozpin said to him.

  
“Wait what just happened?” Jaune asked.

  
“Professor Ozpin?” Ren also asked, unsure of what just transpired.

  
“You probably all have a lot of questions and this must be very perplexing for you,” Ozpin said to them.

  
“And weird and bizarre and very hard to believe,” Nora added. Ozpin chuckled as he looked at his cane.

  
“It’s good to see you children still have a sense of humour,” he said.

 

“Well you’ve missed quite a bit since you uh…is died the right word?” Roman said.

  
“Since my soul left its previous vessel,” Ozpin corrected him.

  
“Yes, that, well I’ve almost died twice now, once was when I jumped into the jaws of a Griffin to save Ruby, it kind of exploded and now my hair is turning silver,” Roman told him.

  
“I noticed, you wouldn’t be the first warrior who’s power turned their hair silver, and the second almost death?” Ozpin asked him.

  
“A minion of Salem, he poisoned me with his Scorpion venom,” Roman replied.

  
“So you all had quite the adventure,” Ozpin noted.

  
“Would you really call it an adventure?” Nora asked him.

 

“Well, I am glad to have found you all, perhaps then it would be easier for me to explain why my Soul is here with Oscar, he is here mentally but I am the one in control,” Ozpin explained to them all.

 

“The man with two souls,” Olwen said. “You’re the man in the story, cursed by the Gods because you failed to stop a great evil.”

  
“What story?” Ruby asked her.

  
“A long time ago there was a man who was born with extraordinary power, a great evil was threatening the world and he took a stand to stop it, he and an army of Silver-Eyed Warriors waged a battle against the evil but they lost. Thousands of warriors were slain, the man ran away and he was punished for his cowardice, an immortal soul that would merge with a younger soul so it could survive. That was you Ozpin,” Olwen said to them.

  
“But then the four sisters came to me and they gave me four gifts that gave me the courage to re-join the fight against Salem,” Ozpin added.

  
“The Maiden Powers,” Pyrrha said.

 

“What about the Relics then how do they fit into all this?” Jaune asked.

  
“I made them, after I gave the sisters their powers, I made them four unique gifts out of the Relics left by the Deity Brothers, the Fall Maiden received the double-edged axe that could become two, Winter received a spear and shield, the spear of which can be used to create, Spring received the lantern of Knowledge, it contains many secrets within its hollow inside and Summer received the Great Sword of Destruction. In my running from the battle I found the four Relics but they were broken and unusable, their magic was fading, so when I found the sisters I remade the Relics and gave them purpose again,” Ozpin explained to them.

 

“And Salem?” Olwen asked him.

  
“She wants the Relics and the Maidens, to become a God of destruction, to let her Grimm run rampant and make the world a cold and dark place again,” he said. Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

  
“Come in,” Olwen called out.

  
“You will not believe what just happened,” Romaine said as he walked in.

  
“What happened?” Olwen asked him as Ozpin returned control back to Oscar.

 

“Leo shouted at me, can you believe it, Leo, the man who is known to hide under his desk when things get stressful shouted at me, me!” Romaine said.

  
“Yeah, it was weird that Leo was so insistent on saying no yesterday, he never does that,” Qrow said.

  
“What do you think is happening?” Oscar asked him.

  
“Someone’s pulling on his tail and he’s doing whatever they ask,” Qrow said. “What’s to bet it’s got something to do with Salem?”

  
“It’s extremely likely at this point, Cinder is from Mistral and was the lead that led us here, I hope Neo managed to contact Goose, I haven’t been able to get any long range messages from her,” Olwen said to him.

  
“Keep trying, for now I need somewhere to hide,” Romaine said to her.

 

“Why?” Roman asked him.

  
“It’s not enough for Leo to shout at me but he threatened with sending me to the border to fight alone,” he replied.

  
“I thought the other teachers were fighting on the border,” Qrow said.

  
“They were…they’re all dead,” Romaine revealed. Olwen gasped a little.

  
“Even…even Professor Jade?” she asked him. He nodded. Olwen looked down in sadness, Professor Jade had taught at Beacon and then transferred over to Haven after they graduated, for him to be dead was a travesty. “I can’t believe it…what Leo is doing, he can’t be thinking right.”

 

“If Salem is behind this, then she’s probably got a minion of hers watching him, obviously it’s not Tyrian but it’s someone in her inner circle,” Roman said to them. “Why do you think Cinder ordered me around?”

 

“Keeps you close so she can dispose of you when she’s done I bet,” Olwen guessed. “Our main objective currently is the Spring Maiden, Qrow you’re heading over to find your sister’s tribe right?”

 

“I’m going to head out tomorrow, for now Torchwick, I need you to keep an eye on Leo, see who’s been talking to him, Olwen you’ll be in charge until I get back,” Qrow replied.

 

“I’m going to go hide in the library and work on my thesis, perhaps when you have some time Pyrrha, Olwen, I can pick your brains on the whole Maiden thing,” Romaine said.

  
“Sure thing Romaine, just make sure Leo doesn’t find you,” Olwen advised him.

  
“I’ll smack him with my mallet if he comes near me,” Romaine said and chuckled. Romaine left them and Olwen advised everyone to settle down for the night, tomorrow they would need to start preparing to protect the Spring Vault.


End file.
